Trial for Love
by xx.Shire.Lily.xx
Summary: A young couple finds a baby on their doorstep one winter... a baby who has some very unusual features. Cowritten with Arialas
1. The Discovery

**Trial for Love**

Chapter One: The Discovery

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Be quiet; I'm trying to sleep.

Thud.

I groggily opened my eyes and blurry squiggles swam into my vision. I blinked, and the squiggles formed connecting lines which, after a moment, I recognized as my own handwriting labeling biology notes from last Thursday. A few sleep-deprived seconds later, I realized the pounding in my head that had woken me up was nothing more than blood rushing through my head. I peeled my face off the notebook and tried to remember what I had had to drink the night before.

Hmm… Nope, no alcohol. Must've been a brain overload. Studying for med school finals should never be done the night before the tests. Ever.

Shoving my notebook onto the coffee table, I hauled my sleepy body from the couch where I had fallen asleep. Maybe studying shouldn't be done on the couch, either. I padded down the hall to the bedroom, taking quiet steps so I wouldn't wake Aaron. I tiptoed to the bathroom, but before I went in, I allowed myself to gaze at his sleeping face. He had been my boyfriend for nearly four years, but I never tired of watching him sleep. I think I truly fell in love with him when I saw him sleep: curled up, clutching the pillow like a lifeline, his peaceful face giving him the impression that all was right in his world.

Lucky him. I had finals in a few hours. I longed to crawl into the bed beside him and run my fingers through his shaggy brown hair and fall asleep again but, tired as I was, there was no way I was going to miss the test that would send me out to residency and a real job.

* * *

The warm water tumbled down upon my head, the reassuring stream finally waking me up. Wiping the drips away from my eyes, I reached for the shampoo, mentally reviewing medical terms. What had I been studying? Oh, that's it. Systems. _Respitory system, endocrine system, digestive system…_ the list went on and on.Naming the systems was the easy part; I knew I would remember the terms when I took the test. It was spelling the names of the systems that was the big problem.

I had fought dyslexia all my life, but the one day in third grade when a kid had begun calling me "Dyslexic Alexa" when I couldn't read "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" aloud to the class was when I really started to understand what it meant to have a learning disability. I had thought his taunt was terribly unoriginal. No rhyming, nothing catchy; there were just two words that contained some of the same letters in the same order.

Determined not to worry about my horrible spelling, I got out of the shower and squeezed the water out of my hair with a towel. I slipped on my comfiest pair of jeans and purple V-neck sweater, remembering how favorite outfits can help you relax. I spent the next five minutes trying to force my curly, frizzy hair into submission. I tugged at a dirty blonde lock and admired how long my hair was getting. A year and a half ago, I'd cut my waist-length hair to my shoulders, thinking it was more practical for med school. Donating all eighteen inches of it to Locks of Love was just an added bonus.

I delved deep into the graveyard of curl-enhancing products under the sink and scrunched my hair into moderately neat ringlets.

I blinked at myself in the mirror a few times and decided that I really didn't look that bad, having been up most of the night studying. I left the bathroom and made my way into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, but not before I feasted my eyes on Aaron's sleeping face again. Pouring myself a bowl of Cocoa Puffs, I sat down to eat, reading the cereal box like I did every morning. Sure enough, the flimsy cardboard was printed with a toucan and a little red car that was supposed to be somewhere inside with the cereal. Little red car. Car.

Oh shit.

The car. How was I supposed to get to class? I usually used Aaron's car, or he dropped me off. But Aaron was currently fast asleep, having returned home at four in the morning, and he needed to drive to the hospital at one, so the car was definitely not an option. Emergency room doctors have weird hours. It's very inconvenient for people like me who depend on their cars.

I thought about taking the bus, as I'd occasionally done before, but a quick glance at the lit-up clock on the microwave told me that the bus had left seven minutes ago. Fine. The bus was out, the car was out. How was I supposed to get there? I glanced at the clock again. It still displayed the same time in neon green numbers. I could always ride my bike. If I left at that very instant I might have a chance of making it to class on time if I rode really, really fast. I stared out the window into the darkness beyond the glass. Riding a bike was really not very pleasant in weather like this. Although it wasn't snowing, by ten o'clock I knew that sleet would be pelting down from the sky. Oh well. That's what I get for living in northern Minneapolis in the middle of January.

I pulled on a pair of thick socks and a warm waterproof jacket and headed out the door, leaving my Cocoa Puffs nearly untouched on the table. Outside it was freezing cold. So cold I wondered why my nose hadn't turned black and fallen off as soon as I pulled the door open. Okay, maybe not quite _that_ cold, but it wasn't exactly a nice temperature. The wind wasn't helping either. Icy blasts kept tearing into my coat and chilling my arms though the sleeves, Great; I'd be late _and _a popsicle to boot.

I hopped off the porch and would have made my way through the wind to the shed (where my bike lived) but something on the steps caught my eye. I tentatively ran my fingers over it and was met with the familiar feeling of wicker. It was a basket. An old-fashioned-looking unfinished wood basket. I knelt next to it and peered inside. Somewhere in the far reaches of my mind, a little voice reminded me to get to class. After all, I had finals didn't I? I shouldn't have been wasting my time looking into strange baskets that appeared on my porch, but for some reason, I ignored the insistent voice and examined the threadbare cream-colored blanket thrown over the handle of the basket. I felt strangely attracted to it, as though some sort of magnet was drawing me in and wouldn't let me go. I must have a really screwed up sense of curiosity. Fingering the soft wool, I gently lifted it up.

I'm not sure what I was expecting to see, but I certainly didn't imagine that beneath the blanket there would be… more blankets. A bunch of them. I stood up, feeling stupid that I had wasted so much time over a basket of blankets when it moved. The blankets _moved_. I stared at it, feeling adrenaline suddenly rush through my veins as my breathing quickened and my heart pounded in my ears, even louder that it had been when I woke up that morning. I carefully lifted the blankets away, peeling back layer after layer until I touched something soft and warm. I removed another colorful cloth and realized what I was looking at. It was a face. A very tiny face. A very tiny, pink face. A baby's face to be exact. I gasped in shock. Someone had left a baby on my doorstep! In the cold, no less! Instinct took over and I completely forgot about all my finals and scooped the basket up and whisked it inside, out of the biting cold air.

Inside, I lifted the baby out of the basked, leaving the poor thing wrapped in a thick blue blanket. It was tiny; the tiniest baby I had ever seen. I hadn't spent the last eight years studying to be a pediatrician for nothing and I could tell that this particular infant was fully developed, even though it was the size of a premature baby. Its little cold hands looked barely large enough to wrap halfway around my finger. I hugged the child, blanket and all, to my chest trying to warm it up, all thoughts of school disappearing as I faced the new mystery of the little baby on the doorstep.


	2. Holly

Chapter Two: Holly

I crept into the dark bedroom, still giddy over my new discovery. Laying the basket gently on the floor, I leaned over Aaron's face and kissed his temple, willing him to wake at my touch.

"Lexie?" he mumbled, turning towards me. He reached out his hand as if to touch me, but then seemed to fall back asleep. I shoved on his shoulder, this time speaking.

"Aaron… Aaron…" I called out in a singsong voice. "Oh come on. I need you to wake up!" Finally, he opened one eye and glared at me. "Okay – here's the plan," I said, pleased to get his attention. "You get to play daddy today, but only if you drive me to school – Aaron?"

At the word "daddy," Aaron had bolted upright, looking frantic and completely awake. "Daddy?" he repeated, his wide eyes traveling down my body and resting on my stomach. "Lexie… Are you… are you _pregnant_?"

"No, I'm not pregnant," I said hurriedly, though I felt the corners of my mouth twitch up in amusement. "There was a baby on the doorstep. I just found it a few minutes ago. I need you to take care of it today." He blinked at me. "I have finals," I reminded him, remembering that I was going to be late with an uncomfortable jolt in my stomach. "Look, Aaron, I need you to drive me to school. I'm going to be late!" I tugged at his arm, and he toppled out of bed. "Come on!" I urged. I picked up the basket, treating it much more gently than I had Aaron, and all but sprinted down the hallway to the front door.

I snatched my backpack from the corner where I had thrown it and hurried outside, my arms full of basket, backpack, and Aaron's pajama-clad arm. Not trusting him to drive while he was still sleepy and confused, I shoved Aaron into the passenger seat and dumped my backpack into his lap. I hopped into the seat behind the steering wheel and lowered the basket between the two seats, making sure it was firmly wedged in.

A few moments later, I was driving along the highway, feeling much calmer now that I was on my way. "So," Aaron said, sounding a little nervous and completely bewildered. "What were you saying about a baby?

"I found a basket on the porch," I began, recounting the whole story. "I was going to ride my bike to school because I missed the bus and you were still asleep, but I brought the basket inside and there was a baby in it. It's tiny, Aaron! I've never seen such a little baby. And who would leave a baby like that by someone's door in the middle of January?" I glanced at Aaron, and found him eyeing the basket between the seats, as if at a loss for words.

I turned into the university parking lot and shut off the engine, handing the keys to my dumbstruck boyfriend with a quick kiss on the cheek. "I really have to go, Aaron," I said. "I'm sorry I woke you up, and I'm sorry to force this on you, but I need you to take care of the baby – and don't you dare give me that look; you're a doctor, you know how to hold a baby – until I get back from finals. I'll be home around two, okay?"

"Lexie! Of course I know how to hold a baby!" He said indignantly. "But you can't keep it! It might need medical attention and someone is probably frantic because their kid is gone!"

I bit my lip. "I know, Aaron, I know! I can't do anything about it right now though. It's up to you!" I jumped out onto the slush-covered sidewalk and slammed the door, effectively cutting off the rest of his protests. I felt bad for dumping my problems onto him, but he would probably have a better idea of what to do with a baby than I did. Plus, I knew he would do the right thing, whatever it was. I watched the car drive off, then turned and ran into the imposing concrete building.

* * *

I plopped down into my seat and flung my backpack down next to me. People were still trickling in through the double doors leading into the room. I thanked God, Allah, and Buddha that I had made it on time. Some higher power must have made it possible for Aaron and I to both use the car today. Even so, I would have to take the bus home, because Aaron had work at one… Uh oh. Aaron had work at one, and I would get home at two. For the second time that morning, I cursed my lack of memory skills. What would happen to the baby in the hour or so that no one was home? My brain was overloading and I hadn't even started testing yet. Oh well. Aaron was mature enough to make a good decision. Right now, my priority was getting through these exams.

* * *

I thought we must've been halfway done with this portion of the test, but hard as I tried, I just couldn't strain my eyes to see the clock in the front of the room. As always, I was seated in the back because of my last name, Turner. Damn alphabetical seating. Maybe I should start wearing a watch.

Forcing my eyes back to the blank paper, I redirected my focus. I-R-I-S. That was the only easy term in the whole of the eye. No, wait. L-E-N-S was easy, too. I hurriedly put my pencil to the diagram, the soft lead indenting the creamy white surface.

It was terms like Aqueous or Conjunctiva that got me all turned around. And Choroid – oh, I never knew whether to put Choroid or Choriod.

Somehow I got through all three tests I had that day and made my way out of the brightly-lit classroom to the bus stop. The snow gods must have been very happy today, because my face stung every time I took a step. I could barely make out the cars down the street, the snow was so thick. I was glad I'd slipped on my thick socks and snow boots instead of street shoes this morning.

This morning.

The baby.

I needed to get home.

* * *

After letting myself in, I cautiously tiptoed my way into the kitchen. 'No one's home,' was my first thought, but then I saw long brown hair spilling over the top of a chair.

"Jess?" I whispered, and the woman turned around. Her face lit up as she ran over to embrace me. I pulled away but kept my hands clasped on her shoulders.

"Did Aaron call you?" I asked, my voice returning to normal volume.

"Yes, but shhh." Aaron's older sister put a finger to her lips. "They're both sleeping."

"They?"

"Yes, they. Your baby and Erica."

"Ooooo! You brought Erica? Can I see her?"

"Of course I brought her. What else would I do with her?" Jess led me into the den, where her daughter was curled up on the couch. I glanced down at the little girl I thought of as my niece with a smile on my face. I had been living with Aaron when she was born, and since she almost never saw us apart, Erica's two-year-old mind assumed that I was "Aunt Lexie."

Anyways, I smoothed her bangs off her forehead and pulled the big green blanket I had knitted last year up around her shoulders before I bent down to kiss her cheek. I had always love kids; it was one of the main reasons I had chosen to become a pediatrician. But more than that, my ultimate dream was always to have my own children. At my preschool graduation, we were supposed to tell all the assembled parents what we wanted to be when we grew up. I had waltzed up to the microphone and announced "When I grow up… I want to be a MOM!"

The thought of having my own children reminded me of the baby that I desperately wanted to be mine. "So?" I asked Jess while I situated myself on the couch by Erica's feet.

"Well, it's a girl," Jess replied, immediately picking up on what I was talking about. "Aaron was going to take her to work with him and have her checked out and go to the police to see if they could locate her parents, but I convinced him that you both should be there when that happens, because they'll probably need your part of the story. He didn't tell me very much when I asked him about it."

I grinned, in spite of the seriousness of the situation. Just like every other kid, I had always wanted to meet a police officer. "I kind of gave him a muddled version this morning. I was in a hurry!"

Jess laughed. "Well, you certainly confused him! He didn't sound particularly happy when he called me. You're going to have to talk to him. Maybe give him an apology."

I hung my head. "I know," I began, but then a bundle on a big red chair at the other end of the room caught my eye. Peeking out of another blanket was the tiny face of the little baby. Gently, I stroked the little face, running the tip of my index finger down the delicate curve of the nose. Her head was mostly hairless, but here and there I found little wispy curls. I touched an ear, amazed at how something so small could be so intricate. Then I froze, feeling something extremely unexpected beneath my fingers. I pulled my hand away and examined the side of the head more closely. The top of her pink ear was pointed, like someone had bent the ear away from the baby's skull and snipped off the round top, making it look like a scrunched-up leaf.

"You found her ears," Jess whispered from behind me. "Aaron was kind of weirded out by those. He says they may be a birth defect. They're both like that. I think it looks kind of cute." I stroked the oddly-shaped ear again, my finger lingering over the tip of the point. To tell the truth, I was weirded out by the ears too. They were cute, I couldn't deny it, but they would probably make the poor baby look like one of Santa's little helpers.

I peeled back the blanket and examined the baby's entire body. She was dressed in a little fleece sleepsuit that was much too large for her body. "That's one of Erica's old ones," Jess told me. "She was completely naked in that basket. Aaron asked me to bring some clothes and diapers because you obviously don't have anything in the house."

"Poor baby," I whispered. "You must've not been very happy." I covered up her warm sleepy body and tucked the blanket around her.

"Oh, no!" Jess exclaimed quietly. "The complete opposite, really. She was the sweetest little thing! She was awake when I came over; just sitting on Aaron's lap and smiling. You should see her big blue eyes, Lexie. She's absolutely adorable. Didn't cry at all, except when she wet the diaper I put on her."

I smiled at Jess. "Thank you so much for coming over. I don't know what we would have done if you weren't here."

"I don't know either," she replied, her eyes twinkling. "My little brother can be pretty clueless sometimes, he didn't even know how to put on the diaper properly! I guess Emergency Room doctors don't change diapers very often. I can't stay though, I've got some shopping to do." She pulled me out of the den and back into the kitchen, and pointed wordlessly at the counter, where I saw several canisters of baby food formula lined up like soldiers in a long, straight row.

I turned to her, astonished. "You brought all this? And diapers and clothes too?"

She laughed. "There's a bottle of milk in the fridge. I haven't fed her yet, so when she wakes up, put it in the microwave to warm it." I enveloped Jess into an enormous hug.

"Thank you so much! I can never thank you enough!"

"How could I refuse to help such a sweet little baby like that?" she glanced at the clock. "But now I've got to run, dear. Aaron said he'd try to get out of work early, so he should be home in a few hours. Good luck!' She collected Erica from the couch, and then she was gone. I was alone.

* * *

The baby woke up about half an hour later, red-faced and squalling on the chair. "Hey, don't cry," I soothed, rocking the baby in my arms. "Jess said you were well-behaved! Shhhhh. I bet you're hungry, aren't you? Let's get you that nice bottle that's in the fridge…" I warmed up the pre-prepared bottle of baby formula in the microwave, trying and failing to quiet the ear-splitting wails coming from the tiny bundle in my arms. How could something so small be so loud?

When the bottle was ready, I offered it to the open mouth and was rewarded with silence as the baby suckled greedily at the rubber nipple. "You were hungry!" I said, thankful that I had done something right. "Does that taste good? You're certainly drinking it fast." Big blue eyes peered up at me over the bottle. The baby's tiny jaw was moving up and down as she sucked, and she was making odd little gulping noises every time she swallowed, as though every sip was her lifesaver.

Too soon, it seemed, the bottle was empty. I gently eased it out of her mouth and set the baby on my shoulder to be burped. As soon as the bottle was taken away from her, the baby began to fuss. Not full-out crying, but pretty darn close. "There, there," I comforted. "What's wrong now?" I checked the diaper. Nope, not the diaper. On a whim, I reached for the bottle and dangled it in front of the baby's eyes. The crying tapered off a bit, but then started up again when I took the bottle away. "Are you still hungry?" I asked, surprised. I'd never heard of a baby this small drinking more than one full bottle. A wail was my only response. Shrugging, I measured out baby formula and mixed it with warm water. But then again, I hadn't heard everything. The baby guzzled the second bottle like a dying man.

The baby was finally satisfied after she polished off, I kid you not, five more bottles. Silently thanking Jess for supplying so much formula, I settled down on the couch with my laptop balanced on my knees and the baby sprawled on the couch next to me (it'd be awfully hard to type on a laptop with a baby on your stomach). While I waited for Aaron to come home, I searched the wonderful thing known as the World Wide Web for baby names. I didn't want to keep calling her "the baby." She needed a name.

* * *

Aaron came home a few hours later, bringing a gust of cold air from outside in with him. I smiled up at him, and he returned it for a moment before seeming to wipe it off his face. He had remembered that what I had done to him that morning. Dang it.

I guiltily looked down at my hands, and then twisted them together and apart for a few seconds before I felt the couch sink down and Aaron's arm come around my shoulders. He didn't say anything, but I knew what he was thinking. A hot tear streaked itself down my cheek and ran along my lip. Another one started down the same path, but Aaron wiped it away and turned my face towards his.

"Hey, Lexie, honey, don't cry," he said softly, hugging me more tightly.

"Are you mad me?" I asked, knowing full well that he was.

There was a sigh. "No, I'm not mad," Really? That was good. "But I think we need to talk," he went on.

I took a deep breath. "Aaron, I know I acted badly this morning. I'm sorry,"

"It's okay," he reassured me. "The thing is, you need to think about what's best for this baby. This morning you acted like you were going to keep it."

I couldn't help it; I let more tears streak down my face and turned my head and buried it into his shoulder, my whole body shaking with sobs. He knew me too well. Of course I wanted a baby. And when one just showed up, literally, on my doorstep, what did he expect me to do?

He stroked my hair and went on. "You know we can't raise a child right now, especially not this one. It's not even ours! We need to go to the authorities and see if they can locate the parents."

I lifted my face so I could look him in the eye. "What if she has no parents? And why was she on the porch? It seems like whoever's baby she is didn't want her!"

"Maybe," he said. "But we don't know that for sure."

"But what if she doesn't? What if, Aaron? What'll happen to her then?"

"Then I assume she'll be put into foster care or up for adoption."

"If that happens, Aaron," I said, very sure of myself. "I'm going to adopt her."

"Well, we're not quite at that point yet, so I guess we'll have to see." I took that to be an agreement. Knowing Aaron, he'd probably figured out that the probability of the baby not having parents was very low. Even I, having acted irrationally all day, also knew that I would have to let the baby go.

"That means yes, right?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure," he replied, laughing at my eagerness. "But first we need to go to the police. Now."

"Fine," I said, scooping up the baby I had fallen hopelessly in love with and depositing her in Aaron's arms. "Make sure her diaper's clean, and I'll go get a few bottles for her in case she wakes up while we're out."

"Won't one work?"

"Aaron, you have _no idea_ how much this baby can drink. She had seven bottles in the space of an hour this afternoon."

Aaron's eyes got huge. He looked down at the sleeping form that he held cradled in the crook of one arm. "And where," he said quietly to the baby. "Does a tiny little thing like you put seven bottles of milk?" I couldn't keep from smiling as I went into the kitchen. Practical though he was, I knew that Aaron was falling in love with her, too.

* * *

In my opinion, the talk with the police had gone very well. It definitely could have been worse. Aaron and I had been told that there had been no missing child reports in the last two weeks within a fifty mile radius of our town. There were only two problems: it had taken forever, as the officers made me tell them how I had found the baby over and over; and Aaron got a little short with them when they started asking too many personal questions. After they'd discovered that, no officer, we aren't married, they'd asked us if we were sexually active, at which point Aaron had told them that our sex lives we absolutely none of their business, thank you very much. The police officer had turned a rather unattractive shade of red and muttered something about needing to get the background while a fuming Aaron loomed over him.

At one point the baby woke up and proceeded to guzzle all three bottles I had brought with me. Aaron and the assembled law officials were astounded. "Until we can locate any family members Ms. Turner," the chief of police had said. "I think it would be best if the child stayed with you. You seem to know what you're doing."

They asked us even more questions to make sure we were suitably equipped for taking care of a baby. We had no carseat, but given the baby's size, it probably wouldn't have done much good. Instead, we told the police how we wedged the basket between the front seats, and they had agreed that it sounded safe enough.

After Jess had left in the afternoon, I had discovered the sheer amount of things she'd left for us. In addition to clothes and bottles, she had erected a little playpen in our bedroom, and filled it with simple toys, like blocks and stuffed animals. Among the numerous other "baby necessities" were two pacifiers and a baby carrier, though the carrier was much too big for the baby. But she would grow into it. As of this moment, Jess was my favorite person ever. She had so much on her own mind and schedule but she still found time to help us out so much. How I loved that woman.

In the end, we were told to take the baby to the doctor's office for a complete exam the next day, and that the police would be calling us often to check up on the baby and let us know if they found anything. It's obvious to say that I really hoped they wouldn't.

By the time we left the police station, the sky was a dazzling pitch black with a few stars visible through breaks in the clouds. We ate a late meal at some sleazy fast food restaurant and went home, exhausted. "So," Aaron said when we got inside. "You get to keep your baby for a little longer, huh?"

"Yep," I agreed happily. "But she needs a name. I don't want to keep on calling her 'the baby.'"

"Holly," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"We should call her Holly."

"Why Holly?" I asked. As an answer, Aaron pointed to a single sprig of holly that I'd taped to the mantel a few weeks before Christmas. I'd been too lazy to take it down, but the leaves were still green and there were even a few berries still clinging to the branch.

"Holly," I repeated, testing the name. I think I could get used to it. It seemed to fit her.

Holly.

* * *


	3. Milk

Trial for Love

Chapter Three: Milk

Even though the police said we 'had temporary custody,' Holly was fitting into Aaron's and my life as easily as if she was our own daughter. Just like any other baby, she woke up a few times during the night, demanding to be fed, but we had come to an unspoken agreement that we would take turns feeding her the ridiculous amount of food that she seemed to require. So even though we were both bleary-eyed zombies from our sleepless night, the day after the hectic ordeal with the police, Aaron and I both got up with Holly at 5:30 – to prevent a disaster like the day I found her.

"So," Aaron said over his cereal. "I'll take you in to school, and then I'll call the doctor and see if I can bring Holly in before I go to work." It had been the plan to take Holly to the pediatric ward today like the police had ordered us to the day before.

"Right," I agreed. "Don't forget to ask them about her ears and her eating habits."

He sighed. I had been reminding him of things like that ever since we had woken up. "I won't," he said wearily. "We've been over this, Alexa. I can take care of it!"

I grimaced and turned around towards the fridge so my back was facing him. If he was calling me 'Alexa' instead of the normal 'Lexie,' it was a sure sign that he was ticked. The best thing I could do now was to shut up and leave him be.

Sighing, I opened up the freezer door and peered inside. Frozen waffles. Yum. I thought he was being a bit impatient, but I suppose I _had_ been a little overbearing since I found Holly. I liked to think it was my maternal instinct kicking in, but still, Aaron was fully capable of handling it himself.

"I know you will," I assured him, trying to make amends. "I just…. I wish I could be there when she's examined."

"You have finals," he reminded me. "And I know you'll want to do well on those so you can apply for residency." His voice took on that superior tone, like a mother sweet-talking an unruly child into going to school. Well, hmph.

When I came home that afternoon, exhausted from another exam marathon, Aaron was sprawled out on the couch, giving Holly a bottle. "Don't you have to go to work?" I asked, remembering what he had said earlier in the week, when he had been at the hospital almost 24/7. The hospital's _always _busy at this time of year – you wouldn't believe how many people slip on the black ice. I couldn't imagine why the ER staff had let Aaron come home early.

"Holly's appointment ran a bit long, so I called in and they let me off for today. I explained the situation with them, and they agreed that it was more important to follow the police's orders than wrap people's sprained ankles." He answered, easing the rubber nipple of the recently emptied bottle out of her mouth. "I don't suppose you'll want to hear what the doctor said, do you?"

"_No_, of course not," I answered sarcastically before plopping down on the couch next to him. I extended my arms for Holly and he gave me a protective glare before unwillingly handing her over. Satisfied, I cradled her in the crook of my arm and dropped a quick kiss on the top of her downy head before reaching to the coffee table for another bottle of baby formula.

"Well," he began. "They started off by weighing her. Four pounds, two ounces. I asked them if they thought she was premature, and after they examined her, they said they didn't think so, because she seemed to be as developed as a normal baby."

"But she's so small," I protested. "That's not normal!"

"I know. They couldn't explain it either," he said, adjusting his weight so I could lean on him more comfortably. "I asked about the ears too, and they told me that it was a birth defect, as far as they knew. The nurses thought it was cute, by the way."

I snorted into his arm at that. "Everyone thinks they're cute. She'll probably grow up being called The Girl with the Cute Ears… nobody will know her real name!" I was rewarded with a laugh from Aaron and a coo from Holly, who had no idea what was going on.

"She was well-behaved too," Aaron added. "Weren't you?" he said to Holly. "You were the best little baby I've ever seen!" I giggled a bit, happy that Holly had such an effect on him. Aaron wasn't _quite _using baby talk with her, but he was getting pretty close. He was usually such a mature and practical man. Inside, I was thrilled that he was in love with Holly too. It was going to be hard to let her go.

"Except during the x-rays, though," Aaron interrupted my internal heartbreak of letting my baby go. "She was a total pill-"

"They did x-rays?" I asked, astonished. Unless something was drastically wrong, we had been taught never to expose babies' fragile bones to the harmful rays.

"Yes… they wanted to check her bone structure," Aaron replied, immediately sensing that something was wrong.

"Well what did they say?"

"Compared to the rest of her body, her bones are growing normally. But compared to every other two-month-old baby out there, she's on the fifth percentile."

"That bad, huh?" I cuddled Holly in my arms a bit, pulling her closer to my body. I could hear the winds picking up outside, just like they always did at this time of night.

"Yeah. They just seem to think she's really small, I guess. At least she's healthy… oh! I was supposed to tell you that she's probably not going to be like this forever. The doctors there thought that her growth was probably stunted for now, but it'll kick back in and she'll be at about five feet tall when she's full grown."

"Five feet? But that's so small!" I whispered, aghast. Aaron and I were both pretty tall – him at 6'3" and me at 5'9".

"It's better than 3'6", which is what she would be if she continued in the growth pattern that she's in right now." I shook my head sadly, wondering what was causing all Holly's problems.

"Did you ask them about the amount of milk she drinks?" I asked, changing the subject.

Aaron nodded. "They said it was very unusual, and that she shouldn't be drinking that much. They want us to taper off the amount we're feeding her. They said we should only give her one bottle every two hours. When she cries and wants more, we should let her cry so she can learn to cope without the bottle."

"But she's always hungry!" I cried, aghast. "You've seen the way she cries, Aaron, and then she sucks down milk like she won't have another chance at one for weeks!"

"I know," he said miserably. "I told them something like that, but they said that it's unhealthy for her to drink that much and it could lead to overeating when she's older."

"What are we going to do, then?" I wondered. "She's going to be crying practically nonstop!"

Aaron leaned forward and picked up a pacifier from the coffee table. "This, my dear," he proclaimed, triumphantly waving it in my face. "We're supposed to distract her so she can learn to focus on something besides food."

A week later, I rose from the warm confines of my bed and stumbled across the room to the corner where we had erected Holly's second-hand crib.

"Holly, Holly…. Shhhh," I murmured, cradling the baby girl against my chest. "It's alright – Mommy's here." I felt a teeny bit of guilt for calling myself her mommy, but I let it pass. There were much more important things to worry about.

I reached onto the dresser next to the crib for a pacifier and unsuccessfully tried to offer it to Holly. "You don't like this one, honey? How about… this one? See the pretty purple ribbon on it?" The only response I got was more crying.

Finally, I gave up and made my way into the dimly lit kitchen. I could just see a sprinkling of stars over the buildings downtown, the sparkling diamonds in the sky making it look like a fantasy world, not Minneapolis. Sighing, I wrenched my eyes away from the early morning sky and to the fridge, where I grasped around for a bottle before warming it up twenty-five seconds in the microwave, all the while rocking Holly back and forth on my shoulder.

I had just begun trying to sing to stop her crying when I felt something brush the back of my neck. I whipped around, only to find Aaron. With my free hand, I clutched my rapidly beating heart. "Oh, Aaron, you scared me!"

His eyes were twinkling slightly, giving away the fact that he was trying hard not to smile. "Why is it that every day I do that to you and you never cease to be frightened?"

"Well, maybe I just have good instincts," I replied, opening up the microwave to retrieve the bottle of formula.

"Here, let me take her." Aaron stopped his goofing around and settled down in a kitchen chair with Holly, looking as natural as a real dad. "You go get ready, Lexie. I've got her." I smiled thankfully at him and turned to go down the hall towards our bedroom.

But suddenly, I spun back around and rushed over to Aaron, giving him a quick kiss, saying, "I forgot to kiss you good morning today!" Laughing, he just kissed me back and playfully shoved me back to the hall.

"You go get ready – we've got to leave early today."

I sighed and pulled my legs up onto the couch with me, sitting with my legs crossed and my laptop balanced across my knees. I'd have to print everything I'd written up out at school the next day, but at least I could type at home.

Having finally gotten my exam scores back, I could begin applying for residency. Aaron could easily get a job anywhere, since ER doctors were pretty high in demand. He had told me just to apply some place that looked good to me and then we could see about a job for him.

I shuffled the stack of papers in front of me before pulling out the one I had written on. I had been researching towns that would be good for us as a family – now that we had Holly. It had been almost two weeks since I'd found her and the police still had no leads to whom she belonged to. They hadn't heard anything about a missing baby within a fifty-mile radius of our house after a week, so they expanded their search nation wide, but none of the missing children turned out to be Holly. The police reluctantly allowed Aaron and I to continue caring for her, but seemed a little wary leaving her in the care of a young, unmarried couple, even though we were both in the medical profession and knew how to handle and care for a baby.

A woman from Child Protection Services showed up on our doorstep one afternoon (luckily, I was home) and looked around the house and asked me some questions, just to make sure we were all right, even though we weren't supposed to keep Holly forever. I told her about the Holly's visit to the doctor's office and that we were putting her on a carefully monitored feeding schedule and she finally admitted that she could find no problems and she supposed it was all right for us to care for the baby.

The thought usually made me smile, but at the moment I was so exhausted from waking up every few hours to feed Holly and then not being able to fall back asleep as she wailed her little heart out. Aaron and I had been trying our best to follow the doctor's orders and cut back on her feeding, but the poor thing was having none of it. At every feeding, she literally inhaled the milk and cried unceasingly when the bottle was taken away. We had given her pacifiers and blankets to suck on, hoping to appease her, but nothing worked. For such a small baby, she could make a terrifying noise. Gone was the sweet, adorable baby I had found on the front porch; the one who cooed when her nose was stroked and smiled when we held her. Holly had turned into a crying machine, day and night, unless she was sleeping from sheer exhaustion, or polishing off a bottle. As much as I hated the noise, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her, she was looking more and more malnourished by the day.

I sighed again, wishing there was something I could do about it. Holly was sleeping at the moment; otherwise I would have been rocking her and trying to coax her into silence with some new, and inevitably uninteresting, toy. Right now I was taking advantage of the rare silence, and I was determined to be quiet enough to let her sleep and keep it that way. Ugh. All I wanted to do was sleep… I leaned my head onto the back of the couch and stared up at the ceiling.

After a few minutes, I knew I would fall asleep if I didn't get back to work, so I wrenched my eyes back to forms I held in my hand.

**UNIVERSAL APPLICATION FOR RESIDENCY**

**POSITION BEGINNING IN: ****2007**

**NAME: ****Turner, Alexa Rachel**

**I AM APPLYING FOR THE FOLLOWING GRADUATE PROGRAM: PROGRAM DESCRIPTION ****Pediatrics**

**NAME OF HOSPITAL: ****Anna Jacques ****CITY: ****Newburyport** **STATE: ****MA **

**ZIP: ****01950**

**MEDICAL EDUCATION**

**MECIAL SCHOOL(S): ****University of Minnesota ****CITY: ****Minneapolis ****STATE/COUNTRY: ****Minnesota, USA **

**MONTH/YEAR OF MARTICULATION AT MEDICAL SCHOOL: ****Last month, fourth year**

**MONTH/YEAR OF (ANTICIPATED) GRADUATION: ****May 2006**

I had only begun answering the questions when I heard Holly's exhausted but insistent screaming from the bedroom again. Frustrated, I threw my pen down and got up off the couch. "I'm coming, Holly!" I called in what I hoped to be a soothing voice.

As soon as I entered the bedroom and Holly's tear-filled blue eyes saw me, she increased the volume of her screaming another ten decibels. "Ah! Holly, dear, I hear you! Shh…" I cradled the baby in my arms, but the crying just got louder. She didn't even sound remotely like a baby anymore. She sounded like a dying animal, giving deep, heartfelt wails that shook her entire body. The sound filled the entire room and bounced off the walls and rebounded back to my ears.

I futilely tried to get Holly to accept the pacifier, but soon gave up. Checking the time, I once again found myself reaching for a bottle to warm up in the microwave. As soon as she saw my hand emerge from the refrigerator with the bottle, Holly gave a small squeal of what must have been delight and watched silently and unblinkingly as I deliberately moved the bottle through her line of vision. But when she saw that I meant to put it in the microwave and not into her waiting mouth, Holly started crying again, this time in huge, gulping sobs. As if I hadn't endured enough of this already. I was getting tired of this, young lady!

So instead of heating the milk for the usual 25 seconds, I only gave it 15, knowing that Holly couldn't care less what the temperature was as long as she got her food.

The microwave beeped, telling me that it was ready. As quickly as I could, I snatched it out and popped it into Holly's mouth, not bothering to check it on my wrist to see if it was right for her.

As I figured, Holly didn't care at all. She greedily gulped the formula, trying to get at it so fast that I started dripping down her chin. I pulled a dishtowel off the oven handle and wiped her chin. Keeping the towel handy, I sank into one of the kitchen chairs. I cradled Holly's small body to me as I held the bottle to her mouth. She was so small… most babies were chubby enough with their baby fat, and if they ate as much as Holly they should be pretty big. But Holly was so skinny – even the preemie clothes I had bought swamped her tiny frame. I guessed it was just another one of her problems.

She almost seemed smaller than when I'd found her. I had obviously been puzzled over her small size, but she'd been healthy enough, the layer of fat beneath her silky skin had given her the glow that all babies seemed to have. On a whim, I used one hand to carefully undo the snaps on the front of her sleep-suit. Ignoring her impatient wriggle, I slipped my hand inside and caressed the skin of her stomach. Yes, there it was. Beneath my fingers, I could feel the tiny but prominent ridges of her ribcage protruding beneath her skin. She had lost her layer of fat. Why hadn't I noticed before? Who gave her the last bath? Aaron, it was Aaron who bathed her with a sponge two nights ago. Had he noticed it too?

I gently forced the nipple of the empty bottle from Holly's lips. She gave a small whimper and squirmed in my arms, turning her head and waving her tiny arms in the direction of the bottle. I set her on the table and undid the rest of the fastenings on her clothing. Easing the fleece off her little frame, I examined her body closely. Her bones were definitely showing; much more than they had when I had found her, and much more than was healthy. Giving her a full examination, I took note of the glassiness of her eyes and the lethargy of her movements. If I hadn't been feeding her every two hours, I would have said that she was suffering from malnutrition. And yet...

Something was very wrong and I didn't know what it was. I glanced at the clock, praying that Aaron would come home soon, maybe he would know.

A/N: If anyone with knowledge in the medical field would like to give us some tips, it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for reading!

Also, we had the form Lexie fills out set up like she really filled it out – with her handwriting and everything. Sadly, it doesn't show up on fanfiction. But if anyone would like to see it, please drop your email address in a review and we'll send it to you! Thanks.


	4. Happiness

Trial for Love—Chapter 4: Happiness

I waited for Aaron to come home for an hour and a half. I had Holly with me the entire time, hugging her lethargic body close to mine while I read a book in the den. I think at one point she fell asleep, her small form settled into the curve of my neck. I didn't want to leave her alone, especially if my suspicions were correct: something was very wrong with her. When Aaron finally joined us, I had immediately had him take a look at her, too.

"Look," I said to him as soon as he had walked in the door. "See how her ribs are sticking out? They weren't doing that before. She's lost weight."

Aaron shrugged out of his winter parka and dumped his keys on the hall table before taking Holly into his arms. His practiced fingers skimmed lightly over her flesh, his trained eye examining her closely. "I think you're right, Lexie," he said at last. "She has gotten skinnier. Get the scale and we'll weigh her."

Of course. How silly of me not to think of it. Holly had been weighed when Aaron took her to the doctor a week earlier. She had been a mere four pounds and two ounces when she still had a cushy layer of fat beneath her skin… would it still be the same? After everything I had observed, I really doubted that it.

I ran to the bathroom and scooped up the scale from the floor. Bringing it back to the den, I set it on the table and reset it so the display read "0.0." I wanted to get an exact measurement of Holly's weight. Aaron carefully removed her fleece sleepsuit and diaper. "This is how she was weighed at the doctor's office," he explained. He set her onto the surface of the scale as she wriggled and whined with discomfort at the cold, hard surface.

"Shhhhh," I soothed, almost unconsciously. "It's okay…" My voice trailed off as I focused on the blinking red digits on the scale.

"Three point one pounds," Aaron breathed. "I can't believe it. How could she have lost so much weight? As if she wasn't small enough to begin with!"

I felt tears sting at my eyes as I redressed Holly. Poor baby must be miserable. I couldn't bear it any longer. "I'm going to feed her," I said resolutely. "She's starving! Literally!"

"Alexa!" Aaron nearly shouted as he grabbed my shoulder. "You can't do that."

"Why not?" I demanded. "Aaron, she's lost too much weight! She _needs_ food!"

He sighed. "I know," He said wearily. "But we've been feeding her every two hours like the doctor told us to. Something is wrong here, Lexie! We need to take her back to the clinic before we go off and try something on our own! We could end up hurting her." I closed the couple of inches between us and laid my head on his chest, fighting tears. Why did things have to be like this?

"Feeding her is going to hurt her?" I asked desperately, but I was fighting a losing battle. I knew he was right, yet I couldn't stand knowing that Holly was underfed while under my care. I felt a single teardrop streak its way down my cheek before it soaked into Aaron's sweater. He unwrapped his arms from around my body and lifted my face up.

"We'll figure this out; I promise you."

x.x.x

The next day, Aaron took Holly to the hospital with him. He returned that evening, a sad smile on his face. "Well, we can feed her more," he said as soon as he saw my hopeful face.

I smiled then, too; a huge grin as I sprinted down the front hall to him. I could only smile up at him, bouncing on the balls of my feet. Aaron laughed at my antics; he had always thought I was a little weird, I think. Handing me the bundle that was my – our – baby, his smile got a little bigger.

Without a word, I turned on my heel and raced off to the kitchen, where I immediately prepared a bottle for Holly. In the distance, I heard Aaron taking off his coat and boots before coming into the kitchen to join me.

"How's the snow?" I asked.

"Hasn't let up yet… I hope my flight isn't canceled," he responded as he searched through a cabinet. I started; what flight was he talking about? I guess Aaron saw my bewilderment for he reminded me, "You do remember that I'm flying out to Massachusetts tomorrow, don't you?"

"Oh yeah… yes, I remember!" Now I recalled how Aaron had planned this trip out to Newburyport; where he would look into finding a job for this summer. I had gotten my residency application results back and it turned out that I was accepted into the Anna-Jacques hospital, located in the young town of Newburyport, Massachusetts. "What time is it, again?"

"I think it leaves at 9:41, so I'll have to leave home at about 7:30ish," Aaron replied as he poured water into our tea kettle. "Maybe even earlier if it keeps snowing like this. I'd hate to get stuck in traffic and miss the plane."

I pulled out a chair at the kitchen table as I fed Holly her bottle. She gulped at it; just as she had always done. She, of course, didn't know that her food wasn't to be limited from now on and sucked down the bottle as fast as she could. I felt happy as I watched her guzzle the milk. Only a day ago it made me want to cry every time she was fed. Now, I could rest easier knowing that she wouldn't be denied the food she loved so dearly.

"Are you making tea?" I asked Aaron as he began heating water on the stove. In the four years that I had known him, Aaron had never drunk anything related to tea at all. We only had the tea kettle because I had spotted it once on the clearance rack and thought the patterned porcelain perfectly matched our blue and white kitchen.

"Nope. Hot chocolate! Want some?" I laughed then; I didn't think I had ever had hot chocolate in my entire life. Growing up on the beach of California, we never got very cold, and I guess the thought just never occurred to me out here in Minnesota. By the time I'd moved out here I had become a coffee drinker through and through.

"Sure, I'd love some," I replied.

"So tell me what happened at the doctor's office," I said as Aaron sat down in the chair next to me with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate and a fresh bottle for Holly.

He took a long drink from his mug. "Well," he said, wiping his mouth. "They weighed her again, and the doctor was shocked that she had lost that much weight. He started to give me this lecture about how important it is to feed her on schedule." He pitched his voice lower in an imitation of the doctor. "Young man, babies need food every two hours. You obviously haven't been very responsible…" I laughed as I pictured Aaron being scolded. "Anyway," he continued, "I told him that we'd been feeding her exactly as he told us to, and that we brought her in because we were worried about her weight loss."

"What did the doctor say about it?" I asked, sipping my hot chocolate. I decided that I liked it. It was a little sweet after drinking coffee every day, but how could I not love a drink made from chocolate?

"He was as clueless as we are," Aaron said. "He still doesn't know why Holly is so small in the first place and said that if she gets any more underweight, she could die. He wants to run some tests on her just to figure out what's going on. Until then, we can feed her until she's satisfied."

"They want to do more tests? What kind of tests?" I bombarded him with questions. "When?"

"As soon as possible," Aaron replied. "I made an appointment for her at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. You're going to have to bring her in."

"Okay," I said. "No problem… all I have to do tomorrow is go grocery shopping. Did he say what kind of tests he wants to run?"

"No, he didn't say. I was wondering the same thing," Aaron replied.

Aaron and I drank the rest of our hot chocolate in a comfortable silence. Holly finished off several more bottles and cuddled her head into my ribs. It was such a treat to see her satisfied and happy for once. She hadn't been this quiet and content since we cut back on her feeding. I remembered that Aaron's sister, Jess, had told me that Holly was a sweet and adorable baby – never crying. I hadn't believed her words until now.

"Look at her," I said to Aaron, feeling a sort of maternal pride. "Isn't she adorable?" He reached over me and gently caressed one of Holly's pointed ears. His tanned hand looked enormous next to her tiny head. He lifted her out of my arms, and settled back into his chair, cooing at Holly. I loved the way he always held her; his two palms were large enough to support her entire body. He kissed her on the top of her downy head and then leaned over to kiss me.

"Let's put her to bed." He whispered. "I have a feeling that she's gong to be sleeping much better than she has been tonight."

x.x.x

Much later that night, I turned over and over in my bed, not able to find a comfortable position. Finally, I gave up and stared at the ceiling. I sighed, my head racing with thoughts of Holly.

"Lexie?" Aaron mumbled. Oops. I had woken him up.

"Yeah?" I whispered back.

"I can't sleep." So I hadn't woken him up. I turned once more, this time towards the center of the bed so I could talk to him more easily.

"Neither can I," I responded. "How about we talk instead?" I could almost hear Aaron smile at that comment; he knew how I loved talking to people.

"Actually, there was something I wanted to talk to you about…" he trailed off. I waited silently. "Lexie… I know we haven't talked about it at all, but what do you think of marriage?

"What do you mean?" I asked, though I had a pretty good idea of what he meant.

"You and me," he said. "We've been together for four years. Why aren't we married yet?"

I froze. I was so surprised that I couldn't speak. Aaron and I had never brought up the subject of marriage. We both just assumed that it would happen someday. I guess that 'someday' had turned into 'now.'

"Lexie? Did you fall asleep?" Aaron asked when I didn't answer.

"No… I'm just thinking is all," I whispered. "I guess… we've never really had money for a wedding… and I've been in school… it just wouldn't be practical…"

"Of course it would be practical, Lexie! We've lived together for over two years. We act like we're married, don't we? We're even managing to take care of a child together! We both love Holly - she's_ our_ baby, even if she isn't biologically ours." That was the first time Aaron verbally acknowledged that Holly was like a daughter to him. My breath caught in my throat and I was at a loss for words.

"Tell me one thing… do you love me?"

"Yes, of course, with all my heart!" I answered immediately. I didn't have to think of the answer at all.

"Then… well, let me start over." Aaron sat up and took my hand. I sat up, too, looking at him through the darkness with questioning eyes. He reached under his pillow and pulled out a small, velvet-covered, black box. My heart thudded loudly. Was he going to… yes, he was. "Alexa Rachel Turner, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" Aaron opened up the box and held it out to me.

I was truly speechless. The only thing I could think of to do at that moment was to throw my arms around him, which I did. After a few minutes, I found my voice again. "Yes!" I screamed. "YES!"

Aaron laughed but then put a finger to his lips. "Shh… you'll wake the baby!"

"I don't care! I'm so excited right now I don't care at all!" I was literally bouncing up and down now, Aaron's hands clasped in my own. "Don't you even want to see your ring?" he asked, laughing at me.

"Marry me?" he asked rhetorically as he presented the box to me. Inside, nestled on a luxurious little cushion, I could see the gleam of the metal band. My eyes still glued to the box, I blindly reached behind me to the bedside table and switched on the lamp. Instantly, the room was flooded with a soft light, but all I could see was the beautiful ring that Aaron was holding. In awe, I gingerly plucked the ring from its container and held it up. It was beautiful, to say in the least. The band was a slim circlet of silver metal, and the deep red stone was flanked by two smaller white ones.

"That's a garnet," Aaron whispered as I fingered the glowing gem. "The other two are diamonds. The band is platinum." I drew in my breath; how did he know exactly what I would love? I had loved garnets ever since I was a little girl. Garnet, after all, was my birthstone.

"It's beautiful," I choked, sliding it onto my finger. I felt tears streak down my cheeks as I flung my arms around him again. "I love you," I said tearfully. "I love you so much!"

"I love you, too," he murmured into my hair. I turned my face upward and kissed him as hard as I could. Holly was happy, Aaron had proposed to me… yes, my life was perfect.

x.x.x

Well, the story's detracted a bit from Holly's main plotline, but we hope that you guys don't mind this new addition! As always, please review and tell us what you think.

Also, if anyone is interested in Aaron and Lexie's past, we have started writing a prequel of how they met and fell in love. The story is called "Starless Night," and since it doesn't have anything to do with Lord of the Rings or any other fandom, it's posted on Frodo's girl's fictionpress account. A link can be found on her profile! Please read it! Thank you.


	5. Not a Toy

Chapter Five: Not a Toy

Four months later, my life was decidedly _not _perfect. Aaron and I, while formally engaged, had put the wedding on hold in order to deal with a more pressing matter: moving. We had decided to move to Newburyport, Massachusetts, when Aaron's interview at the local hospital (the one where I was going to do my residency) went so well that they hired him on the spot. They had a shortage of ER doctors because two of them had just moved away.

Anyways, we were both signed up to begin working there on the first of August. We had two months to move and settle into the new town, but Aaron and I both thought that it would be easier just to move out there as soon as possible so we could check one large item off of our massive to-do list. During his interview trip, Aaron had gone house hunting and found the perfect little cottage-style house, just a block away from the beach. Later, over the phone, I had settled the details. Now the house was ours. It put us into a larger debt than we would have liked, but we planned to live in Newburyport for a long time, and we wanted Holly to have a nice home.

Holly was still a medical mystery. Aaron and I had taken her to countless doctors and specialists in an attempt to discover why she was so small and why she ate so much. So far, no one knew. In addition to plans for a thousand-mile relocation across the country, Aaron and I were petitioning to the authorities to adopt Holly. It was a difficult process and involved many interviews and lots of paperwork. As tough as it was, we weren't going to give up. We loved Holly too much.

She really was a delightful baby. We fed her whenever she was hungry, which was quite often. Our grocery bills were much higher than usual, because every week, we had to buy more and more baby formula. Eventually, Aaron drove to the nearest Costco and returned with five cases of the drink. But despite Holly's eating habits, she still remained small. She gained three pounds over the months, but she barely grew any taller. She was very chubby and always very happy, though, so we tried to just live with the fact that she was so short. The downy fuzz on her head thickened, and soon she had a mop of honey-brown curls down to her little pointed ears. I also discovered that the same this, curly hair was growing on the tops of her feet. It mystified me, and Aaron started making very unamusing jokes about Holly shaving her feet.

With all these things on my mind, my patience had grown rather thin. I was on the phone with our landlord, who was an irritating man with the habit of repeating himself far too many times. "Yes, in one week," I repeated. I had been talking for over half an hour already, settling the facts about moving out. "We'll be out by Saturday, I promise," I reassured before hanging up the phone. I sighed as I turned around. Boxes were stacked all over the kitchen, the family room, and the bedroom. Even though we had been slowly packing for over a month, everything was still a mess.

Thank goodness the first moving truck would be arriving tomorrow to take the furniture. The second one, with all of our other stuff (who knew we had so much!), would be coming the next day. Aaron, Holly, and I would follow by plane.

I half-heartedly opened up a cabinet and started arranging the tea towels and tablecloths that lived inside into one of the open boxes. When I heard Holly crying from the next room over, I went over to her, thankful for a distraction from packing.

"What's the matter, my love?" I asked as I hung over the bar of her playpen. Holly grinned at me, her toothless gums open wide. She stretched her arms up towards me.

"Aaa!" she squealed.

"Mama," I told her, pointing towards myself. "Can you say 'Mama'?"

"Aaa!" was all that Holly said. I laughed then and scooped her up. Aaron and I didn't know how old Holly was, but from what the doctors had told us, we thought she must have been born in mid November sometime, making her seven months old right now.

Even though babies her age weren't supposed to talk yet – they just made babbling sounds, we were always encouraging Holly to talk as much as she could, trying to give her words to repeat.

I made my way through the maze of boxes into the kitchen, where I plopped Holly into the high chair I had acquired from the "New to You" store a month ago, when Holly got big enough to sit up by herself.

"Aaa!" Holly squealed again. I had come to know this as her word for 'feed me.' It could also be translated as 'yes,' 'no,' 'mama,' 'dada,' and 'more.' Shoving away a stack of closed boxes, I reached up into a cabinet for a sippy-cup. Holly was now very proud, as she could drink and feed herself… with a little help.

"Which do you want… apple juice or milk?" I asked Holly, opening up the fridge. She just shrieked in response. "Apple juice, it is," I said to myself as I filled the cup up halfway with the juice. I quickly ran it under the tap to fill it up all the way before snapping the no-drip lid onto the plastic cup and handing it to Holly. She reached for it with both hands and hefted it over her head.

"Ba-ga!" she cried, slamming it onto the tray of her high chair.

"No, no, Holly," I said. "You're supposed to drink it. Drink." She whacked the poor cup again, and the juice sloshed dangerously inside. This wasn't the first time she had done something like this. Now that she could have all the food and drink she wanted to, Holly loved playing with it, just as she played with everything that was unfortunate enough to come within her path. As always, I was amazed that she could handle the cup so well with her tiny little hands. She banged the cup a few more times before she brought it to her mouth and sucked furiously. I could hear little air bubbles fizzing through the lid.

A moment later, Holly decided that she'd had enough juice and went back to abusing the cup. "Aaa!" she squealed. In this case, it must have meant 'how fun!' She raised the cup high and brought it crashing down on the tray. The lid popped off, spraying us both with diluted apple juice. "Ohh," said Holly, more quietly now. Her blue eyes looked at me tearfully. ""Mmmm," she said, sticking a finger in the spilled juice. She held it up in front of her for a second, and then stuck the finger into her mouth.

"'Mmmm' is right," I said to her. "That'll teach you not to hit the cup any more, won't it?" I lifted her out of the high chair and took her to the bedroom to change. "Now," I said as I unbuttoned her one-piece baby suit. "Cups are for drinking from; they aren't toys."

"Aaa!" she replied wisely.

Soon, I gave her a new cup of juice and went about mopping up juice from the kitchen floor, though half the struggle was actually finding the mop within the midst of the boxes. The house we were moving into had blue tile in the kitchen, not ugly yellow-ish linoleum like the floor I was cleaning. I couldn't wait to move and enjoy my own, beautiful house. For a minute, I simply stood, relishing in the fact of owning my first house.

"Gaah!" wailed Holly from her high chair, distracting me from my reverie. She banged the cup again, only this time it was completely empty.

"More?" I interpreted. I refilled the cup and handed it back to her. "Say 'juice,'" I instructed. "Juice."

"Aaa!" she shrieked, hurling the cup away from her. It hit the floor and the lid popped off. Again. Right after I'd finished cleaning the first juice explosion.

"Holly," I began, thoroughly exasperated. "Do _not_ throw the cup!" She blinked her wide blue eyes at me. "Playing innocent won't get you anywhere," I snapped. "See what you did!" I pointed at golden puddle on the floor, and she followed my finger, ginning when she saw the mess. "It's not funny, young lady," I continued, reaching for a dishrag. "I am not your maid."

x.x.x

Holly lost her privilege of being able to hold the cup that day. When Aaron came home, he found me sitting on the couch, bottle-feeding Holly like she was still the itty baby we had found all those months ago.

"She lost the cup," I said when he looked at me, an odd look on his face. I didn't need to explain anymore; the same thing had happened before.

"You're just a natural mother, Lexie," Aaron said as he sat down next to me. "How do you do it?"

I giggled at his question. "I don't know… I guess it's just instinct. How was your day?"

He shrugged. "The normal," he replied. "Tying up loose ends before I completely leave, a bunch of paperwork, and a bit of ER work."

"Did you get any packing done?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"Um… not really…" I trailed off. Aaron looked at me; that special look that only he could do – a stubborn look telling me that he was disappointed, but at the same time trying not to laugh.

"You do remember that the truck is coming tomorrow, don't you?" he asked, exasperated. I nodded sheepishly.

"Oh, but won't it be fun now? We can do it together!" I gave him a bright smile. Aaron sighed, but then grinned at me.

"Let's put Holly down, first. She looks sleepy, doesn't she?" I glanced down at the baby in my arms. True, she did look tired. Her usually large eyes were already closing, making them seem tiny. "Then we can put some music on and get down to work."

Handing the empty bottle to Aaron, I got up off the couch. I slowly rocked Holly back and forth in my arms as I walked through the kitchen and the hallway to the bedroom. Once there, I turned the lights out and tucked Holly into her crib. With a quick kiss on her forehead, I quietly closed the door and went back into the kitchen.

Aaron was bending over the desk that stood underneath the back windows, next to the door leading into our backyard. He pushed some buttons on our ancient boom box and the sounds of The Rolling Stones filled the room.

For a while, we worked in silence, methodically wrapping small objects found in the many drawers and cubbies in the desk and placing them carefully into a large cardboard box. It was a bit like Christmas. I couldn't wait until we unpacked at our new house; it was going to be fun to open the many 'presents.'

We finished with the desk and moved on to the kitchen. "Well," said Aaron, opening the pantry door and looking inside. "This is going to be a lot of fun." I caught the sarcastic tone and peered around his arm into the dark recesses of the pantry. I couldn't remember the last time I had set foot in there; I always used the spacious cupboards in the kitchen for storage. There were spice jars, both empty and full, spread haphazardly across the shelves and the floor; old paper towel rolls, boxes full some-or-another packaged food; and a few mousetraps.

"Do we have to?" I whined to Aaron.

"Yes," he said firmly. "Otherwise evil-landlord-from-hell will either charge us an extra month's rent for leaving a mess, or sue us. Take your pick."

"Okay, then," I said, resigned to cleaning up the atrocious mess that was our pantry. "Why don't we take everything out and sort through it all?"

"Good idea," he said, and hauled a stack of bruised wholesale boxes from the floor up onto my clean countertops. "We can start with these."

Fifteen minutes later, we had moved everything from the pantry to the main kitchen. We wiped down the shelves and the floor with a dishrag, and set about sorting the eclectic jumble from the pantry. "Do we really need to keep twelve empty spice jars?" Aaron asked, gesturing to the line of jars lined up like soldiers on the counter.

"No," I said, pitching them into the garbage can. "I don't think those were ours anyway. The people who rented this place before us probably left them."

He ignored my comment and continued picking through the pile. "Three boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese?" he asked. "That expired… last October?"

"No," I sighed. And so it went. We ended up keeping only a few items from the pantry, and throwing the rest away. We packed the rest of the utensils from the main kitchen, and then we were done.

We didn't keep anything unpacked; thinking that we could just eat out tomorrow. Our flight was early in the morning on the next day, too, so we could eat at the airport or on our way there.

"Oof," I said as I plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs. I surveyed the room; the only things left were boxes. Then I turned around and glanced around the family room. "Do we have to do that today, too?" I asked Aaron.

He looked over the room. "Well, we can either do it tonight or you can do it yourself tomorrow. Which would you rather?" I sunk my head into my hands. 'No more packing!' I mentally shouted.

"I'll do it tomorrow," I decided. A good night's sleep would help, wouldn't it?

x.x.x

Two days later, Aaron and I stood in line in security at the airport. I balanced Holly on one hip, a thin blanket wrapped loosely around body. Aaron rested on the handle of his carry-on suitcase, looking half-asleep. He had an excuse to be, since we had stayed up late last night, desperately trying to finish packing before the trucks would arrive. And then we had to get up at four in the morning to make it here on time. I sighed; I knew he would immediately fall asleep once we were in the air. I would be stuck trying to entertain Holly the entire ride.

We already had enough trouble with her when we checked our luggage. She was a bit frightened by the change of atmosphere and fussed the whole time we were checking our numerous bags and her brand-new carseat. Luckily, Aaron's sister, Jess, had driven us to the airport (Aaron's car was taken by the movers) and held Holly while we got our luggage and tickets in order.

She settled down once we joined the security line. We waited, half-asleep, until we were close enough to the metal detectors for security guards to come check us for liquids. "Any liquids in your luggage, sir?" The portly guard asked Aaron. "Toothpaste? Deodorant?" Aaron rummaged through one of the suitcases and produced two plastic bags full of our toiletries. The guard checked the bag, nodded and moved on to me. "Any liquids?" he asked.

"Jut a sec," I said hurriedly, slinging my backpack off one shoulder. I had checked my other suitcases, but filled my backpack with juice and milk for Holly. I unzipped the main compartment and pulled out a few bottles of apple juice. "For the baby," I explained to the security guard. He eyed it suspiciously.

"Standard procedures will be taken ma'am," he said. "I need to see the bottles." He unscrewed the lids of each and sniffed the contents. "I need you to take a drink from each one," he instructed. I took a tiny sip from each bottle. He nodded in approval. "Thank you. Now I need to check the rest of the bag." I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I hated the tightened security, even though I knew it was probably saving our country. The guard rummaged through my backpack. "What's this?" he asked, holding up a large plastic bag full of white powder.

"Powdered milk," I said. "Also for the baby," He opened the bag and sniffed, just to make sure. A look of disgust crossed his face, and I hid a grin. Powdered milk smelled awful.

"That will be all, ma'am," he said. "Thank you." He moved down the line, asking other people to show the liquids in their bags. I zipped up my backpack and went back to waiting.

After what seemed like hours, we were at the front of the line. I held my breath as I walked through the metal detectors. Though I had never set one off, I had always been afraid of them. A thought struck me while I waited for Aaron; of course he had set it off… it was just our luck today. But was this the first time Holly had ever flown in a plane? I didn't know; I probably never would.

"Oh, she's so cute!" The comment startled me from my thoughts. I smiled at the security woman who was admiring the bright-eyed Holly.

"Thanks," I replied.

"How old is she?" the woman wondered.

"She'll be seven months in a few days," I was surprised at how easily the lie rolled off my tongue. Though we knew the month Holly was born in, we hadn't decided on a birthdate at all. I glanced over at Aaron and saw that he was being led away from the main security area to be checked more thoroughly. I looked around me some more; trying to find a chair that I could rest in.

"You can wait over here, ma'am," the security lady told me when she saw my searching.

"Oh, thank you!" I gratefully sank into one of the chairs she pointed out. To my surprise, she followed.

"Is your husband that one?" she pointed Aaron out amongst the few other people in the checking area.

I decided that it was just easier to go along than to explain the whole story, "Yes, how'd you know?"

"She looks just like him," the woman responded. Then she was called away to work at another station. Holly had been sitting in my lap, leaning against me. I picked her up and turned her around, so she was sitting on my knees. I surveyed her appearance… she did look a little bit like Aaron and me.

I had never noticed it before, but Holly's soft brown curls were the exact same shade as Aaron's. Her big blue eyes didn't resemble his green ones, of course, but they did look a little bit like mine. And something about her face shape reminded me of Aaron, too. Yes, Holly could pass for our daughter; quite easily, in fact.

The thought reminded me of the paperwork we had postponed. The courts hadn't been happy when we wanted to move out of the state, Holly in tow, but they had allowed it nonetheless. Actually, they had even done more than that when Aaron had argued with them. They had started preparing for the adoption process. It would be more difficult after we moved, but Aaron and I were thrilled that they had accepted our request.

I smiled at the memory, bringing Holly close to my chest. I wrapped the blanket tighter around her and tucked the ends in. I started to rock her back and forth, hoping that she would fall asleep. I had a feeling she wouldn't like the train that would take us to the terminals very much.

Several minutes later, a disgruntled Aaron joined us, bags in tow. "Let's go," he said, picking up our bags. "Let's get the hell out of Dodge before they try to strip-search me!"

"Aaron!" I scolded mildly, stepping onto the escalator. "Language!"

"Sorry, Mother," he grinned. "I'm just not too happy about being given 'special attention.'"

"Obviously," I replied as we arrived at the train station. The train pulled up with a rumble, and the doors whooshed open, expelling throngs of travelers hauling suitcases. I hefted Holly higher on my hip; afraid that her undersize body would we squashed by someone who wasn't paying attention. I was glad that Aaron was carrying all the suitcases, leaving me with only my backpack and my purse. We boarded the train and I immediately sat in one of the flimsy plastic chairs, murmuring reassurances to Holly. She was doing remarkably well in the crowded, noisy environment. We had never taken her to a place with so many people before.

When the train started moving, she shifted in my arms and let out a little whimper. The noise and movement were more than she was used to, especially since she had only ridden in the car a few times. "It's okay," I whispered to her. "We'll be there soon."

x.x.x

We arrived at our terminal with an hour to spare. Aaron wandered over to the nearest Starbucks to buy us breakfast and I fed Holly so I would have less of a hassle when we got on the plane. I filled her sippy cup with water from a nearby drinking fountain and added some apple juice. She took it eagerly. "You were hungry weren't you?" I asked her as she drank. Her blue eyes never left mine over the rim of the plastic cup. "Of course you were," I answered for her. "You always are."

Aaron returned with a tray bearing two steaming venti lattes and a blueberry scone. "You are a god," I told him. "You just saved me from a mortal peril known as starvation."

He laughed. "And you're a goddess. You're saving Holly from starvation." He handed me my drink and my scone. Mmm… I loved Starbucks.

The rest of the time passed slowly, as nothing really happened. Holly kept Aaron and I entertained; as she loved seeing all the people rush past us in the aisles. It seemed that at first, all the people scared her, but now they were some new, grand adventure.

"Rows sixty through forty-five!" the flight attendant yelled. Aaron checked our tickets for the thousandth time.

"Not us," he muttered.

"We're in row twenty-one, Aaron," I replied, clutching Holly to my chest. "You know that." Even though Aaron had offered to hold Holly for a while, I didn't give her up. Though Holly didn't look scared at all to be in this huge, crowded place, I was frightened for her. There were just so many things that a baby could get into… and I knew Aaron thought it was really cute to watch her crawl around on the floor. No way was I letting my baby crawl around on the nasty airport floor.

"Forty-five through thirty!" came the call a couple minutes later.

"We're next," Aaron said, standing up. He hefted his bag onto his shoulder and wheeled the other one near the door to the on-ramp. I followed him, clutching Holly in one arm and my purse in the other.

"Thirty through fifteen!" she finally called. Aaron and I entered the small tunnel that led onto the plane. Oh, how I hated flying. There were just so many things that could go wrong… I realized, at that moment, that when I was a kid I had never hated to fly. In fact, I had relished in the delight of the adventure. Holly. She was the reason I was scared, I realized. I was always so fearful for her… I guess it was just another maternal instinct kicking in.

But Holly wasn't in any danger at all, I told myself. By now we had sat down in our blue diamond-patterned seats and stored all of our carry-ons in the overhead compartment or under the seats in front of us. I battled Aaron for the window seat, and he conceded when I pointed out that Holly might like to look out the window.

"Fine," he pouted, slumping into the middle seat. "I'll just it here for three hours, then."

"Fine by me," I said. Then I turned to Holly. "See the trucks?" I said, pointing out the little window? "Can you say 'truck'?"

"Excuse me," a voice interrupted. "I believe you're in my seat." Aaron and I both looked up to see two well-dressed middle-aged women glaring at us. One of them waved her ticket in Aaron's face. "I'm in seat 21B," she said.

Aaron fumbled for his ticket. "So am I," he said, showing it to her. "There must have been some mistake." He reached up and pressed the button for the flight attendant, and a moment later, a smiling woman in a navy uniform joined us.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"Yes," cut in one of the other women, sounding very unhappy. "This man is in my seat."

"I see," said the flight attendant, still smiling. "May I see your ticket please, sir?" Aaron rolled his eyes and gave it to her. She scanned it with a practiced eye. "Well, it seems that you _are _in the right seat," she said, handing it back to him. "May I see yours please, ma'am?" She looked at the other ticket for a moment and her smile faded. "Oh, dear. It seems that we have a duplicate ticket. If you hold on for just a moment I'll go see if there's an empty seat somewhere."

"There had better be," sniffed the woman.

The flight attendant returned a few moments later. "I checked the record," she said. "There's only one empty seat on the entire flight: 51E."

Aaron and the woman looked at each other, both daring the other to move. "I most certainly will not sit anywhere else," proclaimed the woman. "My ticket says 21B, and that is where I'm going to sit!" Aaron gaped at her disbelievingly. The woman could obviously see that he was with me and – supposedly – his child… Wouldn't anyone in their right mind let him sit with me?

"To hell with it," he muttered under his breath, digging his carry-on from beneath the seat. "I'll move."

"Oh, you're too kind," simpered the woman.

"Thank you so much," chimed in her friend.

Aaron looked at me. "Sorry, Lex," he said. "I'll see you when we land." He strode up the aisle, and I could hear him fuming about rude people coming and taking seats from people with babies, damn it, and why the hell couldn't he sit there since he was there first? Poor Aaron. Not only was he suffering from lack of sleep, but everyone in the airport seemed out to get him.

I tried to smile in a friendly way at the woman who took Aaron's seat, but she was deep in a tirade with her friend about "airlines these days."

I sighed. It was going to be a long flight.

x.x.x

Holly was a little scared during takeoff, but she enjoyed the rest of the flight. When the flight attendants came around with drinks, I ordered her a can of grape juice, which she absolutely loved. She sucked down the entire can from her plastic cup in only minutes, and then screamed and banged the cup against the tray when I had no more to give her. The women next to me glared at her when she let out her favorite word in protest. "Aaa!" she cried.

"No, no," I shushed her. "No making loud noises on the airplane. You're going to disturb people."

"Goo," she said. She banged the cup again, causing the tray to bounce up and down. "Eee!" The woman sitting in Aaron's rightful seat sniffed at Holly. I could have sworn I heard her mutter 'Babies!' in a disapproving tone.

I pressed the button for the flight attendant and asked for several more cans of juice. "She really likes it," I explained to the confused woman bearing the cans. "It may be the only way to keep her quiet."

"But… _four_ cans of juice?" she asked incredulously. "For that tiny baby?"

"You may need to bring her some more," I warned. "You have no idea how much she can drink."

The flight attendant saw the truth to my words when I summoned her half an hour later: Holly had downed the juice and was still demanding more. Unfortunately, she also caught the attention of the two women seated beside me.

"Such a small baby!" one of them said. "How old is she?"

"Seven months," I replied.

"No!" her friend broke in. "She can't be! Was she premature?"

Annoyed with such a rude question, I answered: "No, she's just very small."

"Poor dear," the woman said, reaching out to ruffle the fuzz on Holly's head. "Oh, will you look at those adorable little ears!" to my horror, she pinched Holly's ears between her thumb and forefinger. Why was she touching my baby? I bit back the sarcastic remark that threatened to pop out of my mouth. "Oh, my," she continued. "Wait, are they _pointed_? Look, Doreen," she said to her friend. "The baby has pointed ears!"

"How odd," commented the other woman. "Wasn't I just telling you the other day how common birth defects are among young mothers? Too many young people going out and making babies these days…"

I slumped back in my seat, furious with whoever had made the mistake of printing the same ticket twice.

x.x.x

As a holiday present, we're giving you this extra-long chapter, and very quickly after the last one, too! Merry Christmas and please review!


	6. I'll Always Catch You

Chapter Six: I'll Always Catch You

By the time our plane landed, I was exhausted and Holly was dozing on my shoulder. I stumbled into the busy airport and waited for Aaron to disembark. When he joined me, he looked as tired as I felt. "Come on," he groaned. "Let's get our bags and get out of here."

We made our way through crowds to the baggage claim, which hadn't begun distributing our luggage yet. "So," Aaron said, looking mournfully at the motionless conveyer belt. "How were your seatmates?"

"Awful," I said. "They were the rudest people I have ever met." He laughed, evidently agreeing with me. "By the way," I continued. "Thanks so much for leaving me there by myself."

"You had Holly," he defended himself. "I wasn't going to make you move when you were holding the baby. And besides, you're a big girl now; you can take care of yourself." The baggage claim started to move and a bright green bag emerged from the dark tunnel.

"But you could have insisted that those other people get new seats instead of making us split up," I argued, watching more suitcases wind past us. I was still mad that I hadn't gotten to sit next to Aaron during the three hour flight, even though I knew it wasn't his fault.

"Sorry," Aaron said. He evidently had figured out that I really wasn't mad at him. "It that your suitcase?" Sure enough, my dark blue duffel had just made its appearance.

Half an hour later, we collected all our luggage and retrieved the keys for our rental car. Aaron's car, along with all of our furniture and belongings, wouldn't arrive until the next day. I buckled Holly into her car seat. We specially ordered a tiny car seat for her from a website that sold items for premature babies. We were thankful that we could find her such a well-fitting safety device, but it was definitely a hassle to take the car seat to the airport and put it beneath the plane with our other checked luggage.

"Here," Aaron said, thrusting a bundle of paper at me. "Find the map to our hotel and tell me how to get there." I sorted through the pile until I found the map. We were staying at a hotel just outside Newburyport until our furniture arrived and everything was more or less unpacked.

I studied it or a moment. "You go down the highway for a while," I informed him. "Then you take exit 26."

"Gotcha," he acknowledged. When he took the exit some time later, I continued to give him instructions. Unfortunately, Aaron was under the impression that I was going to tell him when and where to turn, so he completely ignored the street signs.

"Stop!" I cried for the third time. "You drove right past it!"

"I thought you were going to tell me where it was!" he fumed, making an illegal u-turn in the middle of the deserted street.

"I told you to turn left on 5th Street!" I said. "Open your eyes! It's right… there. Turn!"

Grumbling, Aaron swerved onto 5th Street. A moment later, our hotel came into view. "Home sweet home," he muttered. "Welcome to Holiday Inn Express."

"It's only for a few days," I soothed. "Come on, I want a shower."

x.x.x

The next day, we drove around the town, trying to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. It was a pretty little place, I decided. There were plenty of trees, and all the buildings looked fairly well-kept.

"Let's go see the house," I suggested.

Aaron smiled at me. "You're in for a treat," he said. "You're going to love it!" He drove slowly through the neighborhood and I pressed my face against the widow, scrutinizing each house. It was apparent that they were built to match, because each one was painted in a neutral color, all the doors were the same style, and they all had wood shingles. Despite the similarities, none were exactly alike.

"Here we are," Aaron announced, pulling into a driveway. I bounced out of the car, leaving my dear boyfriend to release Holly from her car seat. The two-story house had dark brown shingles and grayish-blue siding. The door was painted to match the roof, but the thing that really won me over was the nearest wall. It was stone, floor to roof. The house would have looked like a little cottage in the woods if the trees had been a little taller. But at the same time, it was a classic New England home.

"I love it!" I told Aaron excitedly. "It's so cute! I love the stone!"

"I thought you might," he laughed. "But you haven't even seen the inside yet!"

"Let's go!' I said. We mounted the steps to our little front porch. "We can put some rocking chairs out here," I said, visualizing it already. Iron would work well with the rest of the outdoor décor. "Maybe a little table…"

Aaron rolled his eyes and unlocked the door. I stepped over the threshold and onto the rich wood floor. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I certainly hadn't expected the entryway to be so large. "It's so _big_," I breathed, looking up at the high vaulted ceiling. A wrought iron chandelier hung from the highest point of the ceiling, the dark chain contrasting nicely with the cream-colored walls.

To my left was a cozy living area with bay windows that looked out into the front yard. "This is your room with the stone wall outside," Aaron told me.

"We should put a couch in here," I said. "Or a loveseat and a coffee table. Or some nice leather armchairs."

"Lexie," Aaron said gently, tolerating my excitement. "We don't even _have _leather armchairs."

"We can get some," I said. The little room would look so nice with leather and dark coffee table and a rug on the floor. I could picture it already. "And maybe… in a few years we can get a piano! Wouldn't it fit perfectly into this corner?" Aaron only laughed at me.

I explored the house even more, with Aaron and Holly trailing after me. Directly across from the front door was a majestic staircase. It wasn't really that big, but our last house didn't even have stairs, and this staircase had elegantly curved railings, and it spiraled upward and out of sight. "I love the staircase," I called over my shoulder to Aaron before I skipped beneath a huge arched cut-out in the wall. I hopped down two shallow steps and stepped on to the glorious blue tile that I had been waiting for.

The new area was divided into two parts: to the right the blue-tiled kitchen and dining area, and a larger living room with thick cream carpet was on my left. I went to the kitchen first. It was much larger than our old one. The oven, stove, and refrigerator were conveniently next to each other along one wall. Tucked into the corner was a door. I opened it and found a pantry, similar to the one in the old house. The gleaming countertops along the walls were a warm brown tile, very similar to the wood floors in the entryway. I ran my hand along the length of it as I admired the drawers and cupboards surrounding the microwave and other appliances. I turned around and immediately crossed the short distance to the island which housed the extra-large sink. There was enough space on the other side to serve as a breakfast bar or a buffet table. I would have to get stools to fill out the empty space along the island.

I exited the kitchen and skipped over to the large windows on the other side of the big room. "We can put our table here," I said, more to myself than Aaron. "It's a good thing it's such a dark color, it'll look good with the tile…" Oh how I loved the tile! It was such a pretty color. It was definitely blue, but not a gaudy shade. It was more sophisticated, a smoky grayish-blue color than was calming and cozy at the same time. I spent a few idle minutes gazing at it.

I turned my attention to the living room, shedding my shoes and socks so I could walk across the thick carpet in my bare feet. It was the softest, squishiest carpet I had ever felt. It was like walking on a little cloud. I would put our couch in here; and the coffee table, too. We were going to have to shop for new furniture for the living area by the front door, though. In the corner of the living room was a fireplace with a wide stone hearth and mantel. The wall that connected to the kitchen was nearly all windows, looking out into the backyard. The other wall was covered by shelves and cupboards. It was perfect for the TV, Holly's toys, and all the books Aaron and I had collected over the years. I fingered the dark wood. "I'm going to find every antique store in the area," I announced to Aaron. "I'm going to get all sorts of vases and things to fill these shelves!" He rolled his eyes at me, but I could tell he was just happy that I liked the house.

I put my shoes back on and walked down a short hallway that ran along the side of the living room and the archway that led to the stirs and front door. I opened the doors in the hallway. The first was a bathroom, with gleaming white tile and a little linen closet in the corner. That was the only door on this side of the house, but I spotted another one on the other side of the house. It opened up into a spacious study, complete with a closet and shelves. "We can put our desk in here, and our laptops, and all our stuff for work… and maybe even a couple of chairs over on this end!"

"I knew you'd like it," Aaron said, not for the first time, steering me back the way we'd come, but not before I glimpsed the mud room off to the side of the office. "Wait 'til you see the upstairs. You're going to love that too." Together, we climbed the beautiful spiral staircase and stepped onto the landing that overlooked the entry.

"It's so…open," I said. "I like it." The upstairs was much smaller than the downstairs because the vaulted ceiling didn't leave as much room for living space. We faced French doors and a long hallway. I ignored the doors, and started down the hall instead. The walls were bare, and I shuddered, thinking of ways to liven it up. Paint, maybe. Aaron and I didn't have much in terms of art. The first door I opened was a bathroom. It as larger than the one downstairs, and had a bathtub with a showerhead above. The tile on the floor and counter was white, scattered with flecks of bright blue, and there was a bubble pattern painted near the ceiling. "This is Holly's bathroom!" I proclaimed. I instantly knew she would love it.

The hallway ended a few feet after the bathroom, opening into a large playroom. I was amazed with all the space in the house. Here was another place I could put a couch and a coffee table. Holly could play safely in here. There was plenty of space for her playpen.

The next door revealed a small bedroom with three different colors of yellow sponge paint. It was sunny in here, and I thought that this might possibly be a good room for Holly, but there was still one more door to be opened, and I wanted to see that one before I made any decisions.

I moved on and opened the door on the other side of the hall. It was a bedroom, also painted pale yellow with a walk-in closet. "Holly's room," I breathed. It was larger than the last room, and for a reason I couldn't put my finger on, this room just fit Holly better. The last room could be a guest room.

I could put her crib in here, and a rocking chair, and a dresser for her clothes. It would all fit perfectly. I turned to Aaron, who had been silently following me as I explored the house. He was holding Holly, and she looked slightly overwhelmed with all the new sights. "Come here," I said to her, holding out my arms. Aaron gave her to me wordlessly, and I carried her around the room.

"Here's your window," I said to her. "Look, you can see the big tree in the backyard! And here's your closet, see how big it is?" Holly squirmed and babbled some of her baby-talk, evidently not sharing my enthusiasm. I gave her back to Aaron and raced back down the hallway to the French doors at the top of the stairs. Barely able to contain myself, I slowly opened the doors and stepped into the master bedroom. The carpet, unlike the rest of the upstairs which had the same carpet as the living room, was dark green. There was a window seat on the other wall, covered in cream colored cloth. I knew our bed would barely fill this room. We would have to get some chairs, and a cream bedspread to match the window seat, and some forest green pillows for the bed, and some bedside tables that were made of dark wood… I let my imagination run away with me for a moment.

My musings were suddenly cut off when Aaron nudged me toward the cut-out doorway on the other side of the room. I walked through the threshold and into the largest master bathroom I had ever seen. Even without furniture, it was beautifully decorated. The walls were white, with black stripes near the ceiling. The two counters ('his' and 'hers' sinks) was black marble, shot through with white veins. It looked like lightning in a night sky. The two sinks were shiny white porcelain, and the drawers were also white, with black knobs. The mirror behind the sinks reached the ceiling, and the countertop was illuminated by a long row of round lights. I stepped carefully across the black-and-white-tiled floor and checked out the shower. It had sliding frosted glass doors, and inside, a built-in bench. At the end of the room was a full-length soaking tub. There were three steps leading up to it, and it was deep enough to be a swimming pool. There were two windows in the wall above it, looking into the trees and letting in natural light.

To the right of the farthest counter, there was a small door, discreetly set between two towel racks. It was a walk-in closet. There were shelves and drawers and hanger rods lining all the walls. I smiled mischievously. I knew I would have to go shopping for furniture to fill the space in the house, and I could probably talk Aaron into taking me clothes shopping to fill our huge closet. I closed the closet door and immediately spied another one to my right. I opened it and was delighted to find a tiny room holding the toilet. Very private. Very nice.

I whirled around and flung my arms around Aaron and Holly. "I love it!" I whispered in Aaron's ear. "It's perfect! I can't believe it's ours!"

I tilted my head upward and kissed him softly. Then, bringing my arms from around his back to his shirt collar, I pulled him closer to me, deepening the kiss. Aaron pulled away from me and my eyes snapped open. What was wrong?

"Lexie! I have Holly!" He lifted his arms slightly, Holly's sleeping form curled into them. I pouted at Aaron and crossed my arms. "And there's not even any furniture in the house!" he whispered. I rolled my eyes.

"It was just a kiss," I remarked. I briefly thought about staying mad at him, but then decided against it. "Come on, I want to go explore the backyard!" Aaron and I ran back down the spiral staircase and out the back door that was conveniently situated in the kitchen. I bit back the words that were on my tongue. Oh, how I wished to race him… but Aaron could hardly sprint with Holly in his arms.

The backyard was fenced in, but you couldn't really tell, because all sorts of bushes, trees, and flowers grew haphazardly on the wooden slats, making the space their own little haven. A large oak tree was off to the side, and I walked up to it, pressing my fingers into the bark.

Aaron peeked his head around from the other side of the tree. "Come see! We've got a tire swing!" he said. I scuttled over to him and ran my fingers over the smooth rubber.

"Can you push me?" I asked excitedly.

"What about Holly?" Aaron responded, reminding me that he was holding the baby again.

"Here," I said, offering my arms. "She can swing with me." Aaron looked at my open arms furtively. "We can go slow!" I pleaded.

"Okay, okay!" Aaron laughed, transferring the small bundle to me. Holly sat up a little in my arms; she had fallen asleep during my inspection of the master bedroom and was just waking up.

I plopped onto the circular tire, Holly held securely in one arm, while I clutched one of the three metal chains holding the swing to a strong branch in the other hand.

Aaron eyed my one-arm grasp on Holly. "How about you use both arms?" he asked. I sighed and removed my hand from the chain, wrapping it around Holly.

"Better?" Aaron just smiled at me, gently pushing the swing forward. We were silent for a while, Aaron rocking Holly and me back and forth. After a few minutes, I tilted my head back to see him.

"Can we go faster? Just a little?" I begged.

Aaron laughed at me, answering, "Sure." He then began to pull the metal chains back and letting them go. Holly let out an excited giggle.

"See? She likes it!" I yelled. "Do you want to go even faster, Holly? Can you say 'faster'?" Aaron complied to my wordless request, pushing us farther and farther into the sky.

Suddenly, the tree's trunk came into my view. Somehow, the swing's range had switched from parallel with the tree to near perpendicular. My breath caught in my throat and I instinctively ducked my head and tried to shield Holly. We were going to hit the tree!

"AAR—," I started to scream, but there was no reason to. After jerking forward, the swing came to a stop.

"You know I'd always catch you," Aaron said, smiling.

x.x.x

Thank you for reading! Though we would like to know what you thought of this; especially since the last few chapters have been focusing on Lexie and Aaron, not Holly. Do you like it? Hate it? Please tell us!


	7. Pizza Sauce is Better

Chapter Seven: Pizza Sauce is Better

We continued to play in our backyard until Aaron and I decided to take Holly back inside. The house was completely bare, so we sat on the stairs and admired our beautiful new space. I leaned against his broad shoulder, savoring his solidity and Holly's warmth in my arms. Though I had always felt as if Aaron and I belonged together, I really felt like we were a family now. "The house is absolutely perfect," I said, repeating myself for what must have been the hundredth time.

"We're going to be really happy here," Aaron agreed with me. "But I still can't believe that it's actually ours. I never thought we'd own such a nice house so soon!"

I snuggled closer to him. "Neither did I," I sighed happily, closing my eyes. My comfort was suddenly rudely interrupted by the obnoxious ring of Aaron's cell phone.

"Sorry," he apologized, gently pushing me off him and fumbling for the phone. He flipped it open. "Hello?" he said cautiously. "Oh, hey. How's everything going?" There was a pause as he listened to the tinny voice of the caller. "Oh… I see. Yeah…Well, I guess that's okay… How early can you get here tomorrow? Seven? Right, well, we'll meet you at the house at 7:15 then. Okay… Thanks, buh-bye."

He snapped the phone shut and turned to me. "That was the movers," he said. "They're a bit behind schedule, but they'll be here tomorrow morning."

"They said they would come today!" I said indignantly. "And it's already been three days!"

"They said they'd run into some traffic," Aaron said, though he looked like he shared my irritation. "I guess it's what we get for hiring el cheapo moving people," he joked.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I guess I'd rather start unpacking in the morning though. It'll be over sooner that way."

He grinned at me. "Tomorrow will be our first night sleeping under the roof of our very own house!" His eyes twinkled mischievously. "And I'm going to make sure you remember it."

XXX

The next morning we woke up bright and early so we could be at our house when the movers got there. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of a bunch of strangers tramping all over my beautiful cream carpet with their dirty shoes, and I planned on watching them all like a hawk. Despite the fact that they were, as Aaron called them, "el cheapo movers," they turned out to be quite courteous and helpful. They reassembled the beds and tables, installed our TV and other appliances, and even helped move the furniture over and over when I couldn't decide how to arrange the living room.

By mid-afternoon when they left, most of the furniture was in place, and the kitchen was stacked full of boxes. My carpet, much to my chagrin, was a little worse for the wear, so I set Aaron to vacuuming while Holly helped me tackle the boxes. I set her down on a blanket on one of the only bare spaces of the kitchen floor. "You, young one," I instructed her. "Are going to help me unpack all of our many boxes. What do you say to that?"

"Aaa!" she said happily, pushing herself into a crawling position. She grabbed the corner of the nearest box and pulled herself onto her bootie-clad feet. She teetered for a moment, clinging to the box with both hands, and then fell onto her bottom with a _whumph_. "Maa?" she asked me.

"Good girl," I encouraged. "You're growing so fast, aren't you?" Now let's see what's in this box." I slit the packing tape along the seams of the cardboard and opened the flaps. Inside were the lumpy paper-wrapped parcels that Aaron and I had labored over. I pulled everything out and lined the objects up in a row on the island. "What's in this one?" I asked Holly, holding one up for her to see. I ripped the paper off and produced a bottle of Tabasco sauce. I guessed the box was full of kitchen stuff, then. "Look what it is!" I said, hyperbolizing my excitement for Holly's sake. I showed it to her and she laughed. Her little hands reached out and grabbed at the bottle. Curiously, I let her take it, wondering what she would do. Of course, she did what all babies do when they are given a new toy. She put it in her mouth.

There must have been a bit of dried sauce on the outside of the bottle, for Holly dropped the bottle, gave me a very hurt look and began to cry. "Awww," I said, picking her up and stowing the bottle safely in a cupboard. "That didn't taste good did it?" Fortunately, one of her sippy cups was sitting on the counter by the sink. We hadn't put any of those in the boxes because Holly needed them several times a day. I filled it with water and offered it to her. She jammed the protrusion from the lid into her mouth and sucked hard. "Better?" I asked when she stopped to take a breath. She gave me a watery blue-eyed look that clearly said: 'How can you do something like that to me?'

I set her gently back on the floor, letting her keep the cup with her. "I'm sorry," I said. "I won't do it again." I continued opening boxes and packages, putting away all of our spices and utensils. Pretty soon, I filled several cupboards and drawers with all of our stuff, and the paper wrapping was strewn across the counters and floor. Now all I needed was to locate a trash bag to clean all _that _up.

Holly, having quickly recovered from the hot sauce once she had her cup, pushed herself up on her arms into a crawling position and scrambled towards the nearest crumple of paper. She plopped down next to it and grabbed at it. She hefted it over her head and brought back down to earth with and excited "Eee!" The paper crumpled even further, disturbing other bits of wrapping and causing a wave of noisy rustling. She waved her paper around some more, evidently very pleased with the results. Watching her play gave me an idea. I picked up my own piece of wrapping and decided to introduce her to a new game.

"Look at this, Holly," I said, kneeling beside her. I put it in front of her face so that she couldn't see me. "Where's Holly?" I asked. I pulled the paper away and gave a fake gasp. "Peekaboo! There she is!" My enthusiasm was infectious and Holly laughed with me.

I heard a laugh from the direction of the countertop that separated the kitchen from the family room. I glanced up, to see that Aaron had witnessed our game. He shook his head at me, but his crinkly smile gave away that he wasn't really mad at me. "I got everything unpacked and…" I trailed off, holding up the paper with a guilty grin on my face. "Peekaboo?"

Laughing, Aaron sat down next to me. We then played Peekaboo with Holly for a few more minutes until we were tired of overdoing our excitement for the sake of her entertainment. "I unpacked a few boxes upstairs," Aaron said as he leaned against a cupboard, watching Holly bash another piece of paper around. "Holly's room is pretty much done. Her crib's set up, and I put her playpen in that big room at the end of the hall."

"Good," I said. "That'll make things a lot easier when she gets tired. We won't have to carry her everywhere."

"Yup," he agreed. "I didn't do that much, though. There's still a lot more to unpack, so we should probably do some more before it gets dark out."

We scooped up Holly and her blanket and climbed the stairs together. The little living room by the stairs was completely empty. There weren't even any boxes waiting to be unpacked. "We have to get some stuff for that room," I said to Aaron. "We don't have anything to put in there!"

"Hey," he said defensively. "We're both just out of school. I mean, you're just now starting your residency. We really shouldn't have that much stuff, you know. This is a huge place compared to the old house!"

"I know," I said. "But as soon as I can, I'm going to go shopping for some furniture to fill this all these rooms!" By that point, we were walking down the upstairs hallway. I gestured to the bare white walls. "See these walls?" I asked. "Boring. We need to hang pictures, or paint it, or _something_!" We went into Holly's room. I admit, it didn't look nearly so large with a crib, a dresser, and a diaper station, but there was still a lot to be desired. "And for this room," I continued, "We should get a rocking chair or something. And pictures for the walls. Or maybe I could sponge paint it…" I trailed off, imagining a spray of goldens and yellows across the wall.

Aaron rolled his eyes. "It's fine, Lexie," he said as he tucked Holly into the crib. "Why don't we finish packing before we go around redecorating, okay?" I knew there was mor to what he was saying – basically how we didn't have the money to spend on a lot of new stuff. I thought guiltily of all the plans I had made for our wedding, too. All of that would cost quite a pretty penny as well. The house had already put us farther into the red than we would have liked, and our budget was going to be very slim for a while.

Aaron led me back down the hall to the master bedroom, but I couldn't resist peeking into the guest bedroom on the way. There were no boxes in there either. Great. Another empty room to fill.

x.X.x

We unpacked boxes for the rest of the afternoon, deciding that it was better to just get it over with; otherwise we'd never do it. We filled several large bags with packing paper, and Aaron collapsed the boxes and stored them in the garage while I ordered pizza for dinner. We set up Holly's high chair next to the island in the kitchen, where we thought we would eat most of our meals. Holly woke from her nap, crying and famished. While I waited for the pizza to arrive, I gave her a cup filled with juice and decided to give her a little baby food.

We began experimenting with baby food and other soft foods shortly before we moved, but we had put it off until we were more or less settled in. Fortunately, baby food doesn't spoil, so we packed several jars to open when we were moved in. And then the moment of truth came. I was about to see if Holly would accept the mashed carrots, or if she would be stuck living on juice and baby formula for the rest of her life.

I unscrewed the jar of orange goop and stirred it with a little plastic baby spoon. Not very appetizing, but then again, someone with Holly's appetite should be able to eat anything and everything, right? I sat before Holly and showed her the jar. "Look at these carrots!" I said. "I wonder what they taste like?" I offered her a tiny amount. She cautiously opened her mouth when the spoon approached. "Good girl," I said when she took the food. I could see her tongue moving experimentally in her mouth. She swallowed.

"Aaa!" she said, reaching a hand out for the spoon.

"More?" I asked. I gave her a bigger spoonful, and she swallowed it without protest. Within a few minutes, she had devoured the entire contents of the little jar. I scraped out the last bit with my finger and held it out for her to lick. "That's it, Holly," I cooed. "All gone. I'm so proud of you for eating the whole thing!"

But Holly was having none of that. Her tiny face screwed up and turned red, and she let out a little wail when I didn't offer her any more food. "Still hungry?" I said, opening another jar. The label told me that it was rice cereal Holly perked up when I dipped the spoon into the cream-colored mush. She opened her mouth for me before I even approached her with the spoon. "You were still hungry," I said, unsurprised. In the distance, I heard the doorbell ring and the deep rumble of Aaron's voice thanking the pizza delivery person, but I was completely focused on watching Holly eat. She gulped everything down, and I never had to coax her mouth open. So much for all of those tricks to get babies to eat. I could tell that I would never have to play "here comes the airplane" with Holly.

Aaron entered the kitchen bearing a steaming pizza box. He set it down on the counter and began slapping slices of the mouth-watering pepperoni pizza onto two plates. "So she likes the baby food, huh?" he asked rhetorically. "I knew she would. Is that her first jar?"

"Second," I replied, scraping the last pit of gooey rice from the glass. "And she looks like she's still going strong." I opened yet another jar of baby food: pureed pears. I handed it to Aaron. "Your turn," I said. "I'm hungry!" Aaron set down his half-eaten pizza and held out a heaping spoonful of baby food for Holly. She took it instantly.

"Hungry baby, aren't you?" he asked her as she ate a few more spoonfuls, his voice taking on a gentle tone. He lowered his voice to a loud whisper. "But I bet if you were _really _hungry, you'd ask Mama over there for a bit of her pizza." He winked at me.

"Aaron!" I said. "I can't give her pizza! She'll choke!"

"Give her a little bit of sauce on your finger," he said. "I bet she'll like it." I thought about that. What did I have to lose? It wouldn't hurt Holly, and she would probably like it. I peeled back a layer of melted cheese from the crust and scraped up some of the pizza sauce with the tip of my finger.

"Okay, Holly," I said, leaning over Aaron to give her the sauce. "Here it comes!" Her mouth closed over my finger and I felt her tongue probing at the sauce. "Is it good?" I asked when she released my finger, licked completely clean. She answered with one of her unintelligible baby noises.

"I think that's a yes," Aaron laughed, giving her another serving of baby food. "Come on, Hol," he said when her mouth remained closed. "You like this stuff!" He tickled her lip with the edge of the spoon. "Open up," he coaxed. "You know you want to!" Holly shrieked again, only this time it wasn't a happy-baby noise, she sounded angry, like she was about to cry.

"I have an idea," I said, scraping up more pizza sauce. "Let's see if she eats this." I held out my finger and Holly sucked the sauce off. "She doesn't like the baby food," I told Aaron smugly. "Pizza sauce is better." He laughed and wiped the spoon off and filled it with sauce from his own slice. Holly ate it.

"Look at that," he said. "She has a taste for junk food already!"

x.X.x

The first rays of sunlight peeked through the trees by our window and hit me full in the face. I groaned, rolled over, and stuffed my head under said pillow. "Next time, we're closing the blinds," I mumbled to Aaron. Peeking my head out from my safe cove of darkness, I saw that it was barely 6:30, a.k.a. way too early to get up after a long night. I grinned a little into my arm; Aaron had kept his promise and the first night in our new home really was something to remember.

I tried to go back to sleep, but the bright sunlight wouldn't let me rest. Giving up, I pushed myself out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. The hot steam of the shower would wake me up.

It was halfway into my shower that I realized that we had forgotten to unpack the shampoo. "Shit!" I said into the pouring water. I groaned again and leaned onto the glass wall of the shower. This was _not _a good way to be starting off the day… the day that I would begin residency at the local hospital, Anna-Jacques.

Turning off the water, I wrapped a towel around myself while I hunted through one of the cardboard boxes stacked in the closet. The shampoo wasn't in the first one, or the second. Not the third, either. Finally, I discovered the tall purple bottle in the sixth box in.

Returning to my shower, I saw, through the doorway that separated the master bath from the bedroom, that Aaron had gotten up. I hoped he had gone down to make breakfast. He made the best pancakes in the world.

Forty-five minutes later, I was ready for the day, though it did take me quite a few tries to come up with the perfect first-day-of-work outfit. Finally I decided on a pair of khaki pants and a light blue button-down blouse. I would be getting scrubs anyway, so I told myself that it didn't really matter.

Luckily, I remembered an old professor's words of advice – to wear comfy shoes. It was hard to leave my cute kitten heels behind, but I decided that for the well-being of my feet that my white tennis shoes would be better.

After checking Holly's room to assure myself that she was still sleeping peacefully, I bounded down the stairs and promptly ran into my fiancé.

"Hello, dear," he said. "I was just coming up to get you. I made pancakes!" I grinned as I followed him into the kitchen. How did I get so lucky? He was perfect.

Aaron and I chatted over our breakfast, deciding what our plan for today would be. He was due to start his actual work today, too, so we would drive over to the hospital at nine together. I briefly worried about what to do with Holly, but Aaron told me that they had a daycare service located just outside the ER, so if there were any problems Aaron would be right there to help.

"And it's free for doctors," he told me as he poured more syrup onto his already-drenched plate. Though he did make the best pancakes, I never approved of how much sugar he had to drown them in. You'd think he would know better, too. After all, he was a doctor.

"That's a bonus," I replied.

"Yeah, it's just a regular daycare… at least, that's my understanding of it. Other people who don't work at the hospital drop their kids off at it. But to use the hospital space, the owners worked out a deal with them that all the workers on payroll at the hospital could use it for free. Pretty sweet, eh?"

"It'll be really nice," I agreed. "Do you think they'll be able to handle Holly's eating habits?"

He ran a hand through his hair. Not a good sign. "Yeah, probably," he said, sounding less than sure. "I'll tell them to let her eat until she's satisfied when I drop her off, and if there are any problems, I'll be close by."

"Okay," I said. "I feel bad about leaving her in such a strange place, though. Especially since we just moved!"

"She'll be fine," Aaron assured me.

I heard a faint gurgle and glanced at the stairs. "Your turn," Aaron gave me his lopsided grin. "I got her yesterday." I heaved a fake sigh before ascending the stairs and making my way into Holly's room.

"Where's my little princess?" I murmured. "There she is!" I lifted Holly out of her crib and held her close to my chest, delighting in the feeling of her warm body bundled close to mine. Still sleepy, Holly gave a small yawn, her little mouth opening. I melted. "Holly, Holly, Holly," I sang, cradling her in my arms. "How am I going to let you go to that daycare today? I'd love to stay home all day with you!"

"Lexie? Are you getting ready? We have to leave in twenty minutes!" Aaron yelled from the bottom of the stairs.

"Coming!" I shouted back, making my way over to the dresser in Holly's room. "What shall we dress you in today?" I asked her. Holly just cooed at me.

After we were completely dressed and ready to go, Holly and I went back downstairs. I handed her off to Aaron, who was waiting with a jar of baby food and a cup of juice. I dove into the large diaper bag sitting on the counter and went through it, just to make sure everything Holly would need was there. Blanket, bottles, diapers, more bottles, powdered formula, juice, a jar of baby food… Good. When we were all ready to go, I grabbed a bottle out of the refrigerator on my way out to the mud room to give to Holly in the car.

It only took us about ten minutes to find the hospital. I smiled; at least the commute wouldn't be terrible.

x.X.x

I paused, leaning up against the nurse's counter. When I arrived in the pediatric wing, there were no instructions or a day to learn for me. I was to be trained on the job. For a while I shadowed one of the doctors, but after lunch they switched me to running papers all over the wing, from office to office, and filling out forms for different children. I hardly got a minute to myself just to stand still, and this was only the first day!

I mean, I'd heard horror stories of how the residents were treated badly, but I had always ignored them, thinking them to be wives' tales or the like. At least I had to admit that these doctors weren't exactly being _mean _to me, not on purpose. It just seemed that the only pediatric office in all of Newburyport was awfully busy. And they were just glad to have someone knew to pile all the boring, no-fun jobs on to.

Lunch had been a hurried affair, eating quickly in the back room with some nurses. I had planned on visiting Holly downstairs in the daycare but I didn't even have time to stop at in the ladies' room, much less take a trip all the way down there. The hospital was huge; six floors, plus some underground facilities. The ER was on the ground floor, and the pediatric wing was all the way at the other end of the building on the fifth floor. Even though Aaron and I were working in the same building, we were actually pretty far apart.

A nurse saw me leaning against the counter and stopped. I mentally kicked myself for not remembering her name – there were so many people! – as she said, "Oh, don't worry… it's not usually like this… Mondays are just always horrible." I nodded weakly.

"I sure hope it's not like this every day!" I responded.

She smiled. "Here, how about you take a break from running slips? I could use someone's help recording info in the next few rooms." She led the way down one of the hallways that branched out from the main lobby area. "I'm Penny, by the way. And of course you're Dr. Turner – everyone's heard about you! We've been waiting for the new resident to arrive for days!"

"Oh, call me Alexa," I said, as we turned into a room. They had been waiting for me? And 'Dr. Turner' sounded so weird… I wondered if I could ever get used to it. But knowing me, I would have just gotten used to the new-sounding name when Aaron and I got married and my name then changed to 'Dr. Callaghan.' I gave a small laugh under my breath. I hadn't stopped to think that Aaron and I would have the exact same name at work!

As I worked alongside Penny, I allowed my mind to drift a bit to our upcoming wedding. We hadn't actually made any plans yet, but we knew we were going to do something simple with a few close friends and our families. Neither of us wanted a big formal church ceremony, and now that we lived near the ocean, I had been thinking about getting married on the beach.

x.X.x

After a long day of hard and boring work, I was grateful to finally slide into the passenger seat of Aaron's car. We were fortunate to have similar hours. He got off about half an hour before I did, so he spent it with Holly. "How was the daycare center?" I asked him, scrutinizing the sleeping form in the carseat. She looked fine, maybe they really did know what they were doing.

"It was great," Aaron answered. "I explained the feeding thing to them, and I guess they let her eat because she was pretty happy when I picked her up."

"Good," I said. I felt better about leaving her somewhere now if I knew they could take care of her properly.

"Oh, by the way," he added. "They commented on her ears. They thought she was absolutely adorable. 'Like an elf,' they said. I guess it's kind of ironic that we named her Holly and everyone thinks she'd be a good little Christmas elf!" I laughed a little. Holly's ears would probably lead to some teasing when she was a little older, but right now, she was incredibly cute.

"How was your day?" I asked Aaron after a few moments' silence.

"Pretty good," he said. "It was a lot like the place I used to work. I have this cool little office for when I'm not working, but today it was pretty busy so I did a lot of actual medical work. What about you?"

"Nothing fun," I said sourly. "I followed someone around in the morning, and then they had me running all over the place doing little jobs for the other doctors!"

He laughed at me. "No one said it would be easy! They start you off small, and then you get to do some more stuff. When I first started with the ER, they wouldn't let me near anyone for the first few months. All I did was fill out forms and fetch and carry for other people."

"Great," I said. "I won't get to do anything for months!"

"Yes, you will," he assured me, pulling into the garage of our house. "But not yet. Just give it a little time, and when they see how responsible and dedicated you are, they'll let you do more important stuff."

We climbed out of the car and I collected Holly from the back seat. "Hey, pretty baby," I whispered to her. "I missed you today. Let's go put you to bed in your beautiful new room; would you like that?" Holly's only answer was a slight shift of her sleeping body as she made herself more comfortable in my arms. I carried her into the house and up the stairs, lamenting the bare spaces in our house as usual. I really needed to do something about the empty rooms and unadorned walls. We'd only been in our house for a few days and I already couldn't stand it. I settled Holly into her crib and covered her with a thin pink blanket. "Sleep tight," I whispered. Downstairs, I heard the phone ring. "Gotta go," I told her, dropping a quick kiss on one of her pointed ears. I raced down the stairs and into the kitchen, towards the phone, but Aaron had beaten me to it and was deep in conversation with the person on the other end.

"Who is it?" I mouthed. He waved his hand at me distractedly. Must be a very important call, then. I wandered aimlessly over into the living room, collapsing onto our couch. This room was empty too. Our couch and coffee table went very well with the rest of the house, but I thought we needed to get some armchairs or ottomans to fill up the rest of the space. I daydreamed about all the furniture I would buy until I heard Aaron bidding goodbye to the caller. "Who was it?" I asked impatiently as he joined me on the couch.

"The adoption agency," he said. I sat up straight.

"What did they want?" I asked worriedly.

"We're still prospective adoptive parents," he assured me. "They're sending someone over on Saturday to interview us and check out the house. And to make sure Holly's okay, too."

"That should be okay," I said. "The house is fine, and so is Holly. We've been taking good care of her."

"They also want to interview our co-workers to get their opinion on us," Aaron added wearily.

"What?" I said, panicking. "But we both started work only today! Our co-workers don't even know us!"

"That's what I told them, but they said that first impressions will be fine. Better in fact." I thought about my performance at the hospital today. Had I done anything to seem irresponsible? Anything to prove myself unfit as a parent? "Lexie," Aaron said, cutting into my thoughts. "I know you're kind of upset that you aren't getting to do much real work right now, but can you please try to act like you're really enjoying it?"

"Absolutely," I said. "I sort of made a friend today, so that's one person who could probably give me a pretty good report."

"Good," he said. "It'll be fine, Lexie." Holly'll be officially ours before we know it."


	8. Danielle, Marie, Cheyenne

Trial for Love

Chapter Eight: Danielle, Marie, Cheyenne

The whole next week at work, I was overly conscious about everything I did, from my comments to my fellow workers to the way I carried equipment. To say that Holly was the world to me was an understatement; I sure as hell wasn't going to let one stupid slip-up take her away from me.

"We have to remember to tell them that she normally eats this much, that we're not overfeeding her," I said for the third time that morning. It was Saturday, and the adoption agency was sending someone over to our house. They weren't slated to arrive for another half-hour, but I was already nervous and jumpy.

"Lexie," Aaron said from his sprawled position on the couch, where Holly played on a faded quilt next to him. "She's a happy baby and you're a natural mother. They'll see that she's perfectly fine here," he droned. True, he had been repeating the same thing over and over, as I wouldn't let up on my worrying.

Sighing, I perched nervously on the edge of the house. "I'm sorry… I just really don't want to screw up," I said.

"I know." He sighed, too. "Let's not think about it anymore, though. We'll sound most natural if we just play it by ear."

I nodded. "Okay. What do you want to do this afternoon?" Aaron and I hadn't seen much of the town yet, and I had been waiting all week to visit some of the sights my co-workers had mentioned, like the old lighthouse up the beach or the small town square that housed its very own fountain, built in the 1900s.

"I think we should go shopping," Aaron said, shocking me. Didn't he just remind me, days ago, that we should be careful with our money for a while, since the house had cost us so much?

"Shopping for what?" I asked.

"Your wedding dress, of course." I looked at Aaron, even more surprised. In the flurry of Holly's adoption, I had almost forgotten about our wedding.

"Oh, right. That…" I trailed off, before another thought hit me. "But Aaron! You can't shop with me – you're not supposed to see me in the dress before the ceremony."

He rolled his eyes. "So are we going to do all those traditions, then? Actually, what do you want for our wedding? Does it _have _to be in a church?"

I slouched into the couch. To be truthful, I hadn't really given much thought about our wedding. I knew it would happen, but I hadn't had time to go over the details like I had dreamed of as a little girl. Back then, I had always thought of a traditional wedding – in a church (although my family had never been religious), with white roses and lilies trailing over the pews. But now I didn't really want that, especially since Aaron wasn't religious either, and had expressed some distaste over church weddings.

"I don't want a traditional wedding," I decided.

Aaron laughed. "Good, 'cause I don't either. What do you want, then?" I shrugged. Aaron twisted the hem of his shirt nervously and spoke up again. "I was thinking… what if we got married on the beach? Right here, I mean," he paused, waiting for my reaction.

I thought about it. Somehow it just seemed to fit. I smiled up at him. "That'd be perfect," I said. "We can do it in the summer, when the water's that gorgeous aqua color… it could be simple, with just our families and close friends… do you even want a wedding party?"

Aaron shook his head. "Not really. I think it should just be about you and me – not the bridesmaids and the flower girl."

"But Holly –" I began, before I was cut off by the ringing of our doorbell. I glanced at Aaron, terrified; they were early.

x.x.x

"Okay, to start off, how about you tell me a little about yourselves – your occupations, favorite colors, I don't care," the social worker asked, looking up from the clipboard he had balanced on his lap. He had introduced himself as Bob O'Neill, and had made himself comfortable in our home without much of an invitation, immediately dominating the conversation.

I glanced at Aaron, willing him to say something. He did. "Well, I'm Aaron Callaghan, and this is my fiancé, Alexa Turner," Aaron said. "We both work at Anna Jacques – the local hospital." He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. For the first time, I realized that Aaron was just as nervous as I was, if not more.

I took a deep breath, reminding myself that the social worker was not out to take Holly away from me. "I'm a pediatrician and Aaron's works in the ER," I continued. "We just moved here… from Minneapolis, where we both went to school."

"Ah, so you know a lot about childcare, Ms. Turner?" Bob asked.

I nodded. "Well, yes."

"It's always good to see doctors – you always know their kids will be taken care of medically," he replied. "I do have a question, though – why are you trying to adopt when you've only recently gotten engaged? I read through your file, and it seems that you just… found the child?"

It was Aaron's turn to nod. "Yes, Alexa found Holly – that's the name we've given her – on the porch one morning. We didn't know what else to do, so we took her in."

"We did call the police, of course," I added. "But after a few months, they still didn't have any missing child reports that matched up with her… all the while, Holly just stayed with us."

"I assume you got attached to her, and didn't want to give her up, so when you moved you filed for adoption?" Bob asked.

"That's basically it," I responded.

"Okay, then. How about you show me her room?"

I scooped Holly up from where she was still playing quietly on the floor and followed the social worker and Aaron up the stairs. "Here it is," Aaron announced, opening the door to Holly's room. I was glad that Jess had supplied us with so much baby furniture. Holly's room was by far the most furnished in the house, with a crib, a dresser, a changing table, and some shelves with her favorite toys. Bob poked around the room for a moment, occasionally making notes on his clipboard.

"I see you've covered all the electrical outlets," he commented. "Good… Is there a night light or anything to see by in the middle of the night?"

"On the shelf," I said pointing to the tiny nightlight that I had stowed well out of Holly's reach. It was a clay angel, star cutouts in her skirt letting the light shine through. "We take it out during the day and cover the socket because it's probably easy for her to take out, and we don't want her playing with it." Bob nodded in what I hoped was agreement.

"I see," he said, examining the crib. He raised and lowered the bar, testing to see how sturdy it was. He made a note on his clipboard and then went to the shelves, looking at all her toys. Holly didn't have very many yet, but she loved playing with stuffed animals and soft foam balls.

While Bob continued asking questions and examining the room, Holly grew restless in my arms, squirming around, and finally letting out a little wail of protest. Both Bob and Aaron turned to look at us, Aaron looking horrified that Holly had made an unhappy sound in the presence of the social worker. "I'm sorry," I apologized, bouncing Holly on my hip to distract her. "I think she's hungry, do you mind if I…"

"Not at all," Bob said, cutting me off. "I'd like to see how you go about feeding her." Slightly uncomfortable with having him watch, I took Holly downstairs to the kitchen, telling myself that I would pretend like Bob wasn't there, and that I would act the way I always did when I was feeding Holly. I set her into her high chair and buckled the strap that went around her middle to prevent her from falling out.

"What'll it be today, Holly?" I asked her, tying a white and yellow bib around her neck. It was Holly's favorite, since it had terry-cloth duckies bordering the hem. I set a few jars of baby food on the counter where she could see them. "Creamed spinach? Chicken and mashed potatoes?" She held out her hands toward the jar, making excited babbling noises. "How about… butternut squash?" I asked, selecting a jar full of yellowish-orange goo. I unscrewed the lid and stirred the contents with a spoon. "Yum yum," I said, offering her a bite. She swallowed and opened her mouth for more before I had time to scoop more from the jar. I loved her eagerness to eat and I was so caught up in watching her between mouthfuls that I almost forgot the social worker and Aaron standing behind me. Holly finished her jar of squash and banged her hands on the tray of the high chair, demanding more. I had fed her in the morning, before Bob arrived, hoping that she wouldn't act starved during his visit. Now I worried that she was making us look irresponsible.

"Still hungry, Hol?" Aaron asked, coming to my rescue. "How about some more rice cereal and applesauce?" I rinsed out the squash jar and washed the spoon while Aaron retrieved a container of applesauce and a tub of gooey rice cereal from the refrigerator. We had started mixing the two together for her a few days ago to expand her diet. She seemed to love it, and it was easy enough to make. All Aaron had to do was mix them together in a small bowl and heat it up for a few seconds. "Here you go," he said, taking over my position of feeding Holly. I leaned against the counter, hoping I looked natural to Bob, who was scribbling on his clipboard again.

"How often do you feed her?" he asked me quietly.

"Whenever she's hungry," I answered. "Usually every few hours."

"No set feeding schedule at all? No allotted amount per feeding?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. I immediately realized my blunder.

"We used to," I explained quickly. "When we first started taking care of her, she would drink as many as eight bottles at a time. We took her to the doctor and they told us to put her on a feeding schedule, so we did, for about a week and a half, until I noticed that she was getting thinner and lethargic all the time. We took her back to the doctor, and we were told that she was underfed, and now we're supposed to feed her until she's satisfied."

"I see," Bob said, writing something down. I narrowed my eyes at him. He was starting to get on my nerves with his vagueness. I couldn't tell if he approved of what we were doing, or if he thought we were whack jobs who would be horrible parents. I turned my attention back to Holly, just in time to see her eat the last spoonful of her cereal and applesauce.

"How's that?" Aaron asked, lifting her out of the high chair. I went to the sink and ran a dishrag under warm water and handed it to Aaron so he could wipe Holly's face. When he finished, he balanced Holly on his hip and turned to face us, looking totally natural and at ease. I envied that grace, hoping that Aaron's natural fathering would be good enough to cover over the few blunders that I had already made. "Is there anything else you'd like to see?" he asked Bob politely.

"Yes, there is," Bob answered, checking his clipboard yet _again._ "If you could just take me around the rest of the house, I have some more questions…"

x.x.x

Bob finally left nearly an hour later, after an in-depth tour of the house and endless questions about our financial status, personal life, and how we took care of Holly. After he left, Aaron and I put Holly down for her nap, and then collapsed on our couch to celebrate what we thought was an interview gone well.

"You were perfect!" I said to him, flopping onto his shoulder. "You looked so natural, like you knew exactly what you were doing and nothing could stop you!"

"I do know exactly what I'm doing!" he protested, laughing. "But I know what you mean. I think we both managed to show him that we're capable of taking care of Holly."

"I hope…" I trailed off.

"Lexie." Aaron grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me off of him, turning me around to face him. "You are _not _going to mope around all day because you thought you messed up. You were perfect, and I mean it." He let go of me, and collapsed back into the couch. "I know we were going to go around the town today, but frankly, I'm just too worn out to do much of anything right now," he confessed.

"I'm fine right here," I yawned, laying down next to him. "Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes…"

x.x.x

Aaron and I both must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, Holly's crying woke me from my slumber. Groaning, I lifted myself off the couch, and Aaron's warm chest, and staggered to the stairs. "Mommy's coming, dear," I called up. Responding to my voice, Holly only wailed louder.

"Holly –" I started to say, but stopped short. I had been about to use her full name, just as my parents would when I was in trouble as a young girl. But then I realized that Holly had never _had _a full name. "Holly, Holly, Holly," I whispered, picking her up out of the second-hand crib. "What am I going to do with you?" I rocked her back and forth, and Holly snuggled into my chest.

I started down the stairs, thinking that she was most likely hungry, but Holly didn't cry out any more, and she didn't seem like she wanted anything, except to be with me. "Oh, did you have a nightmare?" I asked, pulling her closer. I plopped onto the couch, next to Aaron's knees. I poked him in the side once, just to make sure he was still sleeping. He grunted and waved at me, before falling still once again.

I leaned up against him, Holly still snuggled into me. Maybe I could go back to sleep…

But now that I was up, there was no going back. My thoughts turned to Holly's name. The sudden realization that all she was called was "Holly" had startled me for some reason. Aaron and I were pretty sure that we would be allowed to adopt her, and when we did, we were going to have to give her a full name. Guiltily, I began to brainstorm, hoping that on the day of adoption, I would have something to write on all the legal papers. Holly Elizabeth, Holly Marie… why could only the two most popular middle names run through my head? Holly deserved something more than that – something special. I mulled over the thought for a while longer, trying to think of a storybook name that fit her.

It had to be something whimsical, not a common name. After all, Holly wasn't a common baby. Holly Jasmine? No, I couldn't have two plant names. That ruled out all my favorite flowers, too, like Lily or Rose. Holly Rose sounded like some sort of paint color, not a little girl's name. What about… Holly Savannah? Holly Faith? I mulled over the names. I wished Aaron would wake up so he could help me think of more.

Standing up, I walked over to the kitchen, switching Holly from being curled against my chest to being balanced on my hip. After I dug around in a drawer for a bit, I came up with a scrap of paper.I scrawled _Holly Savannah_ at the top.

After a few more minutes, I had come up with a whole list of names that might just possibly work. I brought it with me as I walked back over to the couch, where Aaron was just starting to stir. He woke up and looked at me, still hunched over my list. "What time is it?" he asked.

I glanced at the Grandfather clock in the corner of the room. "Almost one," I responded. Without waiting for him to reply, I asked, "Why didn't we ever give Holly a middle name?"

Aaron stared at me. "I… I dunno," he finally said. "I guess it just never occurred to me…And it seemed sort of pointless for a while because she wasn't ours," he trailed off. "Why?"

"I was thinking that if we did get to adopt her, we'd have to think of one," I said, laying the list down in front of him. I read along with Aaron.

_Holly Savannah_

_Holly Sierra_

_Holly Cheyenne_

_Holly Scarlett_

_Holly Brooke_

_Holly Nicole_

_Holly Allison_

_Holly Danielle_

_Holly Olivia_

_Holly Katelyn_

"Well… my favorites are Danielle and Cheyenne, "Aaron finally said. "Although I think Marie would sound good too, even if it is really common."

"That jumped to my mind at first," I said. "But I want to give her a more unusual name."

"We don't have to make a decision yet," Aaron answered. "Holly Danielle, Holly Marie, Holly Cheyenne…" He murmured the names quietly to himself. "They all sound good. Let's call her Holly Danielle Marie Cheyenne."

I whacked him playfully in the chest. He was mocking me. "No! I don't want her to be one of those kids with a zillion middle names!" He grinned.

"I'll think about it and get back to you with my absolute favorite." He promised. "What do you think, Hol?" he asked, addressing the baby in my arms.

"Eee!" She squealed, hearing her nickname. "Aa baa vee!"

"Really?" said Aaron. He glanced at me again. "I think she wants to be Holly Abavee."

We played with Holly for a while longer, turning her babbling into potential middle names. "Holly Maa-daa?" Aaron asked playfully, tickling her stomach. "Or Holly Giggle-giggle?" Eventually Holly got tired of the game and loudly demanded food. Again.

"Weren't we planning on going shopping today?" I asked Aaron as I fed Holly mashed peas.

"Yeah," he said. "We could go into town after you finish feeding Holly. If you want, I'll go look up some stores where we could probably find you a dress." I nodded enthusiastically and he started down the hallway to the office where we kept our laptops.

"And a suit for you!" I called after him. "And a little dress for you, Miss Holly," I said to the baby in front of me. "No more little one-piece outfits. You're going to get something nice and pretty for the wedding." Holly burbled at me through a mouthful of peas. I scrutinized her body. She was growing, and had gained weight since Aaron and I began her unrestricted feeding schedule all those months ago. Even so, she was still tiny for being almost eight months old. Anything we bought for her would have to be made for infants if we were going to find the right size.

Aaron came back into the kitchen. "Great news," he said, taking the empty jar of baby food from me and rinsing it out. "There's a store that specializes in weddings and stuff not too far from here. They're open right now. Are you ready?"

"Hang on!" I laughed. 'If we're going downtown, I have to get prettied up! Get Holly ready and I'll be down in just a minute."

I dashed upstairs and into our green-carpeted bedroom. Aaron and I had both dressed more nicely than our usual weekend wear to make a good impression on the social worker, but I glanced around our huge walk-in closet anyway. I was already wearing a light blue cotton skirt and an embroidered white top, so I decided to wear my favorite pair of white sandals and bring my white purse. I grinned wickedly. The purse was only large enough for my phone and wallet. I would make Aaron carry the bag full of Holly's supplies. I spent a few minutes styling my hair and putting on makeup before I finished the look with some simple jewelry. I stepped back to look at myself in the big mirror. Not bad at all. I hadn't dressed up like this in a long time.

When I went back downstairs, Aaron was waiting with Holly cradled in one arm and the large diaper bag full of baby food and juice in the other. He had produced a comb from somewhere and neatened his hair, and Holly's face was wiped clean and her curly brown locks seemed to be in more order in usual.

"Wow," Aaron said, looking me up and down. "Who are you, and what have you done with Lexie?"

"Shut up," I said, leading the way to the garage. "Let's go!"

x.x.x

A/N: We're having a hard time deciding on Holly's middle name, so if you would be so kind as to review, we'd love to hear which name you think sounds the best! Thanks!


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